It’s perfect weather for voting in Iowa, and my polling place was busy this morning. Of about 1200 registered voters in my precinct (Windsor Heights 2), 125 had already voted in person by 8:30 am. I don’t know how many people voted by absentee ballot in my precinct, but statewide it was about a third of the electorate, so I assume several hundred people in my precinct voted early.
The “mystery pollster” Mark Blumenthal posted this cautionary note about any exit polls that may be leaked later today. He also linked to this piece from two years ago, which explains how exit polls are conducted.
If you encounter any problems with voting, don’t hesitate to call the Obama campaign’s voter protection hotline:
1-877-US-4-OBAMA (1-877-874-6226)
The non-partisan Election Protection also has a hotline:
1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)
Swing State Project’s final House race ratings can be found here. They have IA-04 as “likely Republican” and IA-05 as a “race to watch.”
Lots of websites will be tracking results closely tonight. For presidential and Congressional results, I will be hopping back and forth between Open Left, Talking Points Memo, Swing State Project, MyDD and Daily Kos, and will highlight notable results here.
It could be an early night if Virginia and Pennsylvania look to be going Obama’s way. Polls close in those states at 7 pm eastern time.
The Iowa House Democratic Caucus blog will have live results on the House races tonight, but I don’t know where to go for live results on the state Senate races.
UPDATE: More voter protection numbers:
ACLU Voter Protection Hotline (1-877-523-2792)
Lawyers’ Committee Hotline (1-800-OUR-VOTE / 1-800-687-8683)
Here’s a funny story from Talking Points Memo about some flaws in the vaunted Republican microtargeting operation.
Republican spin doctor and focus-group master Frank Luntz tells it like it is: “I cannot foresee a scenario that John McCain is elected the President of the United States.”