Election 2012: Live Blogging at the OB Rag

8:37pm FOUR MORE YEARS!

5:17pm – pst ……….  More voting irregularities

NEVADA — Minor issues so far. Two voting machines were taken out of service because of malfunctions and one touchscreen did not reflect the proper choice, officials said. Authorities corrected the issues, reported Catherine Lu, spokeswoman for the secretary of state.

VIRGINIA — Long lines keep some polls open, but only for those in line. In Prince William County, people waited as long as four hours at one polling station, with Democratic operatives pleading with them to hold out a little bit longer. The county’s River Oaks precinct had only six voting machines for the 5,100 voters registered in the heavily minority and Democratic-leaning area. Read the full story.

PENNSYLVANIA — Provisional ballots galore in Philadelphia. Large numbers of registered North and West Philadelphia voters are not being shown on the city’s books and are being asked to cast provisional ballots, election workers and observers tell the Philadelphia CityPaper. The problems followed reports that election officials had not processed up to 20,000 voter registrations just two weeks before the vote. Read the full article.

COLORADO — A Romney-to-Obama voting machine? The state’s secretary of state is investigating after a dozen complaints that a voting machine in Pueblo changed as many as 12 voters to Barack Obama, KRDO is reporting. The county clerk said the problem has affected choices for both presidential candidates. See the full story.

PENNSYLVANIA — Democrats send voters to wrong polling place. The York County Democratic chairman apologized for volunteers leaving messages with the wrong polling places for a York neighborhood, the Patriot-News reported. The fliers were mistakenly picked up by the volunteers and intended for another neighborhood, the party chairman said. Read the full article. In other Keystone state news, officials recalibrated a voting machine after a YouTube video showed that it changed an Obama vote to Romney.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Right election, wrong day. A Democratic committee’s automated call to voters said the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday. The committee said a Chicago vendor recorded the message, which ran to some voters Monday night. When the list was resumed Tuesday morning, the ”tomorrow” wasn’t changed, dcist.com reported. An updated message was sent out. Read the full story.

OHIO — Poor voters unnecessarily ‘pushed’ to provisional ballots? That’s what Ohio’s Senate Minority leader says. Voters in poor and traditionally African American neighborhoods are being asked “for photo ID, you don’t need that in Ohio, but they’re requiring that in certain instances. They’re requiring that the address on the ID match the address in the book — that’s not required,” state Sen. Eric Kearney told Buzzfeed.

NEW JERSEY —Faced with a flood of applications to vote via e-mail or fax by people displaced by Hurricane Sandy, the Garden State extended the voting deadline. Over the weekend, the administration of Gov. Chris Christie chose to offer e-mail and fax voting to storm victims, despite security concerns. See the full story.

FLORIDA — Voting machine problems; 12,310 ‘wrong-day’ robocalls. At least two Hillsborough County polls reported vote-machine problems, the Tampa Tribune reported. Also, officials acknowledged the higher number of Pinellas County voters who got a robo-call Tuesday by election officials mistakenly telling them the vote was Wednesday. Another 28,300 calls with the correct date were made Monday. The mistake came from a vendor, said the county elections supervisor. Vote-scanning problems also occurred in the South Florida communities of Miami Springs, Pembroke Pines and Plantation, the Miami Herald reported.

5:15 pm – pst …….. NYT: Some results became clear in states where there was somewhat less suspense: Mr. Romney was projected by The Associated Press to win Kentucky, West Virginia, South Carolina and Indiana, while Mr. Obama was projected to win Vermont.

5:14 pm – PST …. Over at SDFP Doug says:

Drudge reporting Obama leading exit polls in PA, MI, NH, NV, and OH. If that holds, Romney is toast….Obama camp likes what they are seeing in turnout and latest exit polling…. State election officials in both Virginia and New Hampshire now say turnout is “exceeding” 2008 levels… REMEMBER THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL!

5:10 pm – PST …….  More on that disturbing polling place in Coronado that divided voters into two lines depending on their party. I asked the person who reported for more details and here is what they sent:

The polling location in question was the Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Coronado Island.  The voter said they had two lines one with a red sign and one with a blue sign. When she asked a worker which line to go to the person red is for Republicans and Blue is for Democrats.

 5:06 pm – Senate races also too close to call, but Warren is in the lead in Massachusetts and Democrats are leading in the other 3 Senate races where there are tight calls.

5:00 pm – PST ………  First projections: nothing surprising yet; Ohio is too close to call; North Carolina, Virginia, too close to call. The Northeast, Maryland, Illinois all went to Obama, much of the South to Romney. At this moment, Obama has 64 electoral votes and Romney 82.  Voting in New Jersey has been extended.

[Took a break, went to vote]

3:00 pm – pst ….. Rachel Maddow says “it’s gonna be a long night.”  Chris Matthews calls Bill Clinton the Closer for the Democratic Party.

2:57 pm – pst ……. Texas Judge extends voting by nearly 2 hours due to problems with the voting machines.

A Galveston County judge ordered that polls remain open one hour and 54 minutes after the normal closing time because of problems with voting machines when the polls opened, the Galveston County Clerk’s Office said Tuesday

2:54 pm – Some progressive pundits are calling these long waits a type of “poll tax”.

2:52 pm – pst ……… The Virginian-Pilot reports some Virginia Voters forced to wait 4 hours

Tempers began to flare at the Clarence V. Cuffee Community Center in South Norfolk today as the wait to vote pushed past the four-hour mark.   “This is just horrible,” said Rashell Hobbs, a 19-year-old first-time voter. “There is no reason it should take this long.”   Hobbs was one of more than 700 people in a line that filled the center’s auditorium, snaked down the halls and stretched into the parking lot.   “A lot of us have been in line since 6:30,” said Edwina Griffin, her voice.

2:44 pm – pst … On-the-ground Rag reporter Chris Dotson called and said that Colleen of the Green Store just returned from voting at Bethany Lutheran; at about 2:30 it was light voting – only took 5 minutes for her to vote. And there was a good mix of young people and older residents – more younger than olders.  Everything went smooth, no problems.

2:22 pm – pst …….. African-American voters in Florida are angry at Gov. Rick Scott for his attempts to limit their voting. (Joy Reid of the grio on Chris Matthews.) She says people there are fired up, and spoke to a pastor who said that something happened these last 2 weeks, and if the Republican governor hadn’t attempted to do that, he would have trouble getting parishioners to the polls but not now.

2:20 pm – pst … Voting is up 8% in Ohio compared with 2008, reports John Nichols of The Nation on MSNBC. This could be good for Obama.

2:16 pm – pst …… When to Start Looking for Election Results

Here in San Diego there will be info released shortly after 8 pm. Some very general exit polling information on races around the country will start tricking out at about 3 pm today. Nationally (all times are PST) we can see trends starting at 4 pm (Virginia), 4:30 pm (Ohio & North Carolina) and at 5 pm polls are closing in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Two key battlegrounds are Florida and New Hampshire. At 6 p.m. Polls close in 14 states, including Wisconsin and Colorado. and at 7 p.m, polls close in four states, including Nevada and Iowa. (Big thanx to Doug at San Diego Free Press for this)

2:10 pm – pst …. Chris Matthews – interviewing senior Obama campaign, Robert Gibbs, who says, “We woke up this morning with 9 battleground states, and Romney is not doing well in any of them according to the polls.”

2:07 pm – pst …….. MSNBC pundits are saying don’t expect results from Ohio and North Carolina until midnight (Atlantic time) – 9 p.m. our time here on the West Coast. And if the split is less than 20,000 votes, we won’t know the results for two weeks. (Chuck Todd – polit. dir. MSNBC)

 2:03 pm …… Lorena Gonzalez is saying, according to SDFP, that “DeMaio folks at SDSU [are] handing out flyers saying Bob Filner wants to shut down the bars.”  She calls them “pathetic” and “desperate” – which is difficult to disagree with.

2:00 pm pst ………. Chris Matthews and fellow pundits at MSNBC admit they know nothing yet, as they don’t even have the exit polls yet.

1:19 pm – pst ……. Separate Lines for Different Parties? We have heard a rumor of voters being separated into different lines depending on their party affiliation, one line for Republicans and another for Democrats in Coronado. This is not legal. If you see anything like this, let us know.

1:10 pm – pst ………Colorado GOP claim voter machine foul-ups. Party activists claim four dozen complaints of machines switching votes for Romney to Obama

1:01 pm – pst – Republicans feeling good about their chances in Florida.

12:57 pm – 70% of California Voters Expected to Vote –

Despite record high voter registration, about 1 million fewer Californians are expected to cast ballots in today’s election than they did four years ago, according to a new Field Poll.   The Field Poll estimates that 12.75 million Californians will vote today, down from the 13.7 million who participated in the 2008 election.  The firm estimates that this year’s contest will be the first statewide general election in which voters casting ballots by mail will outnumber those going to the voting booth.  It estimates that about 70% of California’s registered voters will participate in this year’s election, or about 54% of adults who are eligible to vote.  Polls around the state close at 8 p.m. ~ LA Times.

12:56 pm – pst …. Senate Republicans lower their expectations of taking the Senate.

12:47 pm – pst ……… The LA Times is reporting some sporadic problems across Southern California:

•  At Trinity Street School in South Los Angeles, poll workers had ballots, but no voting machines. Some voters waited in vain for more than an hour to see if the machines would arrive before leaving in frustration. “We can’t vote,” said Gerardo Galeano, 39. “If this was a local election, I probably wouldn’t be as upset, but with the stakes for today’s election, the presidential race and all the propositions, it makes me scratch my head: How could this happen?”Daniel Villa, a USC student, said he accompanied his mother to the polling station to cast her first ballot as a U.S. citizen, only to find she could not vote.”This further marginalizes my community,” Villa said, noting that he had made a formal complaint.

•  In Ladera Heights, at Saint Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, three precincts all had a small percentage of residents who said they were incorrectly listed as choosing to vote by mail. Those voters had to fill out provisional ballots.There were also reports that some voters were being asked for identification, which is not required in California.

•  James Childs, 67, said he was asked to produce a drivers license or other photo identification when he went to vote at the Hoover Recreation Center near USC.”I’m outraged,” he said. “I happen to have a photo ID, so I could vote, and did, but other people in this neighborhood may lack IDs.”He said he didn’t see anyone being turned away, but was told by poll workers that he would be turned away unless he produced an ID. He said he made a formal complaint.”I’m concerned this is going to be going on all day,” he said. “I’ve been voting here for 33 years and have never been asked for a photo ID.”

• Voter rights advocates from the Election Protection Coalition, which has a phone bank to monitor voting problems, said some of their highest call volume was coming from California on Tuesday morning. Barbara Arnwine of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which spearheads the coalition, said callers were complaining about “a smattering of different things,” including demands from poll workers for identification.

•  There also were reports of “unpleasant interactions” with voting monitors from True the Vote, the tea party-affiliated organization. The coalition said it had received 1,571 calls from California before 9 a.m.

12:42 pm – pst … No lines in OB polling sites. Chris Dotson of OB just reported in that he went by 3 precinct polling places in OB and didn’t see any lines.

12:27 pm – pst …. NBC Ch39 just ran an anti-Filner TV ad.  Still, after everything, DeMaio’s friends are still desperately going after every last …

12:24 pm – pst …..  Ch 8 News: Voters to decide first new county supervisor since ‘95 –

Voters filling the Board of Supervisors seat being vacated by Pam Slater-Price will choose today between Steve Danon, chief of staff to Rep. Brian Bilbray, and Dave Roberts, the deputy mayor of Solana Beach.   The race marks the first time since 1995 that a seat has opened up on the five-member board.   Slater-Price, whose District 3 stretches from Encinitas to Escondido and includes some northern San Diego areas, is retiring. The campaign to replace her focused largely on job creation and bolstering the economy.

12:14 pm – PST … More irregularities from today:

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Right election, wrong day. A Democratic committee’s automated call to voters said the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday. The committee said a Chicago vendor recorded the message, which ran to some voters Monday night. When the list was resumed Tuesday morning, the ”tomorrow” wasn’t changed, dcist.com reported. An updated message was sent out. Read the full story.

 OHIO — Malfunctioning election scanners in Cleveland. Voting equipment has been down in parts of Cleveland and several suburbs, including Cleveland Heights, Maple Heights and Parma, The Plain Dealer reports. In Parma Heights, problems were reported with a machine counting the ballots. Election officials said voters will be asked to put ballots in a gray box that will be counted later. Read the full story.

12:03 pm – PST … MSNBC: Romney is excited, running on adrenaline and fastfood.  President Obama is relaxing in Chicago, playing basketball.  Joe Biden’s in Ohio.

Noon – Romney is in Pittsburgh right now.

Noon – Finally, Election 2012 has arrived – and Americans are voting across the country and here in San Diego County. We’re sooo tired of this campaign – it must be the longest in history.  And so tired of all the commercials.

11:59 am – PST – “Razor-tight”? Comedians making fun of pundits calling the campaign “razor-tight” – which of course is an ol’ mixed metaphor. On msnbc.

11:55 am – PST … I’m live-blogging from San Diego County right now – the times are when I write or post something from today’s news.  I’m constantly searching a number of mainstream and progressive sources for news and info from Election Day 2012 across the country and in Ocean Beach. I’m trading info with Doug Porter over at San Diego Free Press in the meantime. We’re posting thoughts and observations from our contributors and readers. So if you have something – an observation or experience while you voted today or other thoughts about today’s election, send ’em on in, either via a comment below, or to us at our email address:  obragblog@gmail.com

11:51 am – PST … Here are some problems at polls this morning ID’ed by the NY Times:

 Precincts throughout New York City, including many unaffected by last week’s storm, had lines of voters stretching for blocks. In many cases, this was because scanners had broken down or there were simply not enough poll workers to accommodate the perfectly predictable big crowds. As Mayor Bloomberg (a frequent critic of the board) put it, “I kept hearing, ‘What’s this, a third-world country?’ ”

A poll worker on the Upper East Side couldn’t find Mr. Bloomberg’s name in the voter rolls, so she gave the book to him to let him find his own name. Mayor or not, that violates the rules.

Voters were being turned away in Pennsylvania for not having a photo ID card, even though that requirement isn’t in effect for this election.

A voter in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood walked into a polling place and was handed a “sample ballot guide.” It turned out to be a guide on how to vote Republican on every question, from a party worker electioneering (illegally) inside the polling place.

Ohio’s election board made a serious error and falsely told thousands of people they were not registered. Rather than fix the problem, state officials decided those people would have to use provisional ballots, which will not be counted for two weeks.

Some Latino voters in Arizona who thought they registered on the same day they got United States citizenship were not on the rolls. One Latino voter was asked by a poll worker who she planned to vote for.

11:47 am – PST … Norma from Windansea neighborhood of La Jolla wrote us:

7:45am: about 20 people in line at the Riford Center polling site on La Jolla Blvd. More young adults and couples with little kids than I’ve seen before. One electronic voting machine available to whoever wanted it.

 8:30am: Scott Peters sat down at the neighboring table in a little breakfast place I go to near the LJ post office. He looked and sounded relaxed.

11:27 am – PST … Break-in at Washington State Democratic HQ

WA State Democrats report break-in at office – SEATTLE —  Someone broke into the Seattle offices of the Washington State Democrats, the party said Tuesday.    “Early this morning, the Seattle headquarters office housing the Washington State Democrats, Organizing for America, and Jay Inslee for Washington was the site of a burglary,” the party said in a news release. “The Seattle Police Department is currently investigating, and no further details will be available until the conclusion.”     Seattle police had no further details.

 KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Dubois said police are at the scene, taking fingerprints and processing evidence.   A spokesman said it’s too early to know what was taken. The break-in was in the main office area, where there may have been laptops and other electronics, along with signs and mailings.

11:22 am – PST … Breaking: Machine turns vote for Obama into one for Romney

A Pennsylvania electronic voting machine has been taken out of service after being captured on video changing a vote for President Obama into one for Mitt Romney, NBC News has confirmed. Republicans have also said machines have turned Romney votes into Obama ones.

The video was first posted on Youtube by user “centralpavoter.” It shows a voter’s finger repeatedly pressing the button for Obama, but a check mark coming up next to Romney’s name.

11:18 am – PST… Steady Turnout In Los Angeles – HuffPo reader in Studio City, Calif., tells HuffPost that he saw steadily flowing lines at his polling place on Tuesday morning. The reader said that while the line at the Studio Village apartments was long, it moved well. He and his fiancee were able to vote within 15 minutes.

11:15 am – PST …  Short morning lines in Nevada :  Early morning lines formed at many Nevada polling places but with more than 700,000 ballots already cast during two weeks of early voting — about 70 percent of the expected vote, analysts say — the waits were not long in many places. As the morning wore on, voters showed up in a trickle.

10:54 am – PST … From SD Free Press: Lorena Gonzalez of Labor Council tweets: GOTV Workers Harassed

Lorena Gonzalez from the San Diego / Imperial County Labor Council reports that Get out the Vote workers are being harassed in San Diego. There’s a picture of the license plate on his Jaguar (inside). She also reports that at ‘Gospel Center Church near Mt Hope a so-called  ”poll observer” yelled at our folks & tried to intimidate poll worker’.  UPDATE via Twitter: TRIKLDN = 2005 Jaguar. Registered owner is David J Ruyle. This is the guy harassing our volunteers /voters

10:52 am – PST … Voter Suppression Reported In Pennsylvania – tweet: froomkin @ froomkin : Common Cause says report from Fayette County PA that GOP operative poll watchers are asking voters their name and saying they can’t vote.

10:41 am – PST … Here is a partial look at reported incidents of voter registration and election irregularities, with links to full stories on the issue.

 OHIO — Tea party-linked poll watchers rejected. Franklin County rejected a Houston-based group from monitoring polls after falsified applications were found. Voter advocates said True The Vote told volunteers to use cameras to intimidate voters when they entered the polling place, to record their names on tablet computers and to attempt to stop questionably qualified voters before they could get to a voting machine. Read the full story.

  NEW JERSEY — Complaints mounting from storm-affected voters. Voters have said they cannot find new voting locations, volunteers are overwhelmed and e-mail submissions are ”a mess,” according to NJ.com The state has allowed voting by e-mail or fax, but many voters said they never received a ballot back after they contacted election offices online.

 FLORIDA — Election supervisor robocall gives wrong date for vote. Some voters in Florida’s Pinellas County received automatic calls Tuesday morning from the local supervisor of elections mistakenly informing them that they had until 7 p.m. Wednesday to cast their votes. (Polls are to close at 7 p.m. Tuesday). Officials said the call was a glitch and that a second set of calls went out later in the morning. Read the full story.

Other stories from Nov. 5th. and earlier here.

10:39 am – PST … Romney will be in Boston tonight, and Obama will be in Chicago.

10:36 am – PST – MSBNC: In Ohio, there’s lots of enthusiasm; Obama team feels confident about what they’ve accomplished in Ohio, as does the Romney team.  Long lines are reported at some Ohio polling sites.  Romney is still out there campaigning.

Generally, journalists are saying that the Obama camp is fairly confident about who the American public will elect.

10:34 am – PST … MSNBC is reporting that in Hoboken, NJ, Staten Island polling places had to be replaced or relocated. 90% of Hoboken has power now. People are making the effort to get out and vote, however, despite all the physical challenges in these places hit by the storm Sandy.

10:26 am – PST – Mysterious $11 Million from Arizona “non-profit” Tied to Koch Brothers

$11 Million Donation Tied to Koch Brothers; Calif. Agency Alleges ‘Money Laundering’ –  By Steve Harmon, McClatchy News:

Ending a mystery that captivated the run-up to Election Day, the Arizona group behind an anonymous $11 million donation revealed under court order Monday that the shadowy donation was laundered through two groups, including one tied to David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who have played a huge role in spreading anonymous political cash around the country.

 The donation, the largest anonymous contribution to a ballot measure campaign in California history, was made to the Small Business Action Committee, a conservative group running a campaign for Proposition 32, the measure that would curb labor’s ability to collect political cash, and against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-hike initiative.

10:07 am – PST … Dow Jones gains 1% as Americans head for the polls. Stocks rose, with the Dow Jones industrial average racking up a 1 percent gain, as the prospect of a winner in the U.S. presidential election removed a major uncertainty that has been dogging investors.   If stocks end higher, it would be the second straight gain in prices.  At midday, the Dow was up 141.84 points, or 1.08 percent, at 13,254.28. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 11.18 points, or 0.79 percent, at 1,428.44. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 13.39 points, or 0.45 percent, at 3,013.05.

9:54 am – PST … Breaking: Reports of Possible Voter Suppression in Cincinnati – see here.

9:27 am – PST … ‘True the Vote’ poll watchers rejected in Columbus, Ohio area;  

COLUMBUS – Local volunteers with the tea party-linked organization True the Vote were rejected as poll watchers by county officials Tuesday amid questions about how the volunteer applied to monitor the polls.   Ohio law allows permits groups of at least five candidates to assign poll observers, but candidates backing the group withdrew their support when charges surfaced Monday that candidate names had been falsified or copied on forms requesting observer status, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

A Houston-based group called True the Vote that wanted to monitor 30 Franklin County polling places for potential voter fraud was thwarted by county elections officials because their appointments were improperly filed.

 The local branch of the group, called Voter Integrity Project, was rejected as observers when most of the candidates who supported the organization withdrew their backing with the Franklin County Board of Elections. The state law allows groups of at least five candidates to assign poll observers. The group wanted observers in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.

9:22 am – pst ...  Hundreds of Florida voters told election is Wednesday: Hundreds and potentially thousand of voters in Florida’s Pinellas County received automatic calls from the local supervisor of elections mistakenly informing them that they had until 7 p.m. tomorrow to cast their votes. Of course, they actually have until 7 p.m. this evening.

9:19 am pst … South Florida voting machines malfunctioning. Reports of malfunctioning machines and broken scanners were reported throughout South Florida as Election Day 2012 kicked off Tuesday.   At Chapel Trail Elementary School in Pembroke Pines, things got off to a rough start after a scanner for one of the three precincts voting there died moments after the doors opened at 7 a.m.

9:17 am – A Washington Post / ABC poll has Obama at 50%, Romney at 47%.

9:16 am PST … Dan Rather has a “gut” feeling that Obama will be re-elected.

9:09 am pst … Voter Suppression Reports Already In The Tens of Thousands –  A liberal voter-suppression watchdog group says it had received more than 26,000 reports on its toll-free voter hotline of people having problems voting as of 10 a.m. Tuesday.  The hotline, run by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, has taken a total of 40,000 calls since it went live in August.

 1-866-OUR-VOTE has received more than 40K calls since August; 26K+ by 10am today. Please continue to call or report issues using #OVLReport

— Election Protection (@866OURVOTE) November 6, 2012

9:03 am pst …Our friend and contributor from SDFP Fran wrote us:

After having my Obama 2012 yard signs stolen five times since Labor Day, I put up the last two this morning just before the polls down the street opened at 7 a.m. And here’s a harbinger of good things to come: my daughter’s turquoise-blue baby parakeet escapee that flew the coop on Saturday, returned to its family today, as if by magic. I’m leaving shortly to GOTV at Dem HQ for a couple of hours. Voted more than a week ago at the Registrar’s office.

 8:57 am pst … Kelly, an occasional contributor to the San Diego Free Press just wrote in:

A little narrative from this morning….  Today is my birthday. And I got to vote.

Very auspicious, I hope. My small family–husband Jim and son Walter–walked the block and a half to the Golden Hill House to vote right after the polls opened. We were heartened to see a line out the door, which was a stark contrast to the primary election in June when almost no one showed up.

People were in a good mood, happy to be there, and friendly. Given the acrimony and poison from the last few days of campaigning–I’m singling you out, Carl DeMaio!!–it was great to see folks turning out to exercise their right to vote.

Yesterday, on November 5th in 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for illegally voting because she was a woman. I never forget the lengths to which my foremothers went so that I can vote on election day. Since my birthday is November 6th, I always associate voting with my day. Hopefully Prop 30 will pass, Bob Filner will be mayor, and the forces behind Prop 32 won’t silence me as a union member. I am sporting my “I Voted” sticker proudly and will make sure that all of my students at City College who can vote will do so today.

 8:44 am pst … Chrysler gave its workers the day off to go vote – Daily Kos :

Something Chrysler is not doing: shifting Jeep production and jobs to China. Something Chrysler is doing: giving workers the day off to vote. The auto manufacturer’s vice president of design tweets:

Chrysler gave its entire work force the day off to Vote Today! Let’s go! #America – — @RalphGilles via Twitter for iPhone

A week ago, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne sent employees an email saying that because of the “public debate” over the Jeep jobs (i.e. because of Romney’s lies), “I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position” that Chrysler is not only not moving jobs to China but expanding its American workforce. And now all those Ohio and Michigan workers have the day off to vote.   It’s nice to watch a lie biting Mitt Romney in the ass in real time, isn’t it?

8:40 am pst ...  Ohio’s provisional ballots could drag out the election; election-law expert Rick Hasen explains how Ohio’s provisional ballots could lead to a weeks-long delay for the state’s final results.   Provisional ballots are used more often in Ohio than in most states. Experts have estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 will be cast there.

8:36 am pst ... The AP is reporting that some Rhode Island precincts were given the wrong ballots.  Rhode Islanders were facing long lines and, in at least two polling places, the wrong ballots as they began voting Tuesday in a hotly contested congressional race and on whether to allow the state’s two slots parlors to turn into full-fledged casinos.

8:34 am pst … This was sent in by John Patrick Anderson, a columnist at San Diego Free Press:

8:30 am pst … The Columbus Dispatch reports that Tea Party Poll ‘Challengers’ Denied Poll Observer Status;  A Tea Party-backed group that intended to send out poll “challengers” across Ohio was denied Tuesday following accusations that it had forged key documents that had earlier secured their workers poll observer status.    It’s the True the Vote – Ohio branch.

8:27 am pst … GOP Senate Candidate’s Sample Ballot Encourages To Vote For Her And Obama

8:21 am – Terrie of the OB Rag reported that on Saturday night, “someone came to the door with a change of voting place for me. Rather than reporting in at the Masonic Temple at the top of Santa Cruz, I’m supposed to go to the Mortuary. While I appreciate the door service and notice, I couldn’t help but wonder about the metaphor of the change in venue as well as why it was changed in the first place.”

8:18 am pst ……. Don’t forget to check out Doug Porter’s The Starting Line over at San Diego Free Press for other election day news and updates from around San Diego County.

8:15 am PST ….. Mic Porte from Pacific Beach reports:  at 7:45 am north pacific beach – in a small line of 5 or 6 voters, during the time it took me to vote, (a couple of minutes) 2 people who registered as “permanent mail-in voters” declared that they had NOT received their ballots in the mail, and were given “provisional” ballots….

8:06 am – PST: We aim to bring you updates and news during today’s voting.

7:40 am PST – Long lines reported in Maryland.  The Baltimore Sun reports that voters across Maryland reported lines of an hour or more as Election Day 2012 got under way.  All counties are open, and reports of heavy lines came from around the state, deputy state administrator Ross Goldstein said.   Polls are expected to be crowded this morning during the pre-work rush. Goldstein has predicted an 80 percent turn out rate among registered voters, consistent with past presidential elections.

7:39 am PST – Long lines reported in Florida. A Democratic source sent along video of voters lined up outside the West Sunset Fire Station in Miami-Dade County, Fla., around 10:00 a.m. EDT. People there had been waiting for more than three hours.   The problems with early voting in Florida were due in large part to the GOP legislature’s decision to cut the state’s early-voting period from 14 to eight days. Gov. Rick Scott (R) refused to extend early voting hours, despite the long lines.

7:33 am PST Obama supporters think early voting goes his way

In Chicago campaign staffers are projecting serious confidence about the final results. “The math is clear. Our opponent is losing among early voters in nearly every public poll in every battleground state,” OFA national field director Jeremy Bird told reporters late Monday afternoon. “We’re confident a big showing on one day can’t match the votes we’ve already banked over the last month.”

 In North Carolina, for example, Romney must win 65 percent of the voters in order to carry the state. In Iowa and Colorado, he needs 59 percent of the voters tomorrow; 58 percent in Nevada, 55 percent in Florida and Ohio, and 52 percent in Virginia and Wisconsin.

Bird said that in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina and Nevada, 1.4 million Democrats who didn’t vote in the midterm elections have already cast ballots this year—compared to 840,000 sporadic Republican voters.

Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told reporters today that only 49 percent of Floridians have already voted, compared with 55 percent in 2008—which she blamed on a shorter early voting window.

7:28 am pst: Long lines form in New York and New Jersey at Polling Places as Displaced Residents Find Ways to Vote

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, hundreds of voters waited on the sidewalk and packed into a gym at Public School 163. Voters had to wait in different lines to determine their election district, to get a ballot, to fill out the ballot and to get the ballot scanned. The process took an hour. There was no help for the disabled, and people grew increasingly upset.   Officials tried to make the process work smoothly especially for those living in areas hard hit by the hurricane.

New Jersey and New York both said they would allow voters uprooted by Hurricane Sandy to cast provisional ballots anywhere in their states.

7:22 am

7:16 am PST: Bob Dylan predicts Obama landslide. 

MADISON, Wis. — Bob Dylan says he thinks President Barack Obama is going to win a landslide.   Dylan made the prediction Monday night midway through the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” during a concert in the battleground state of Wisconsin.   Dylan spoke to the Madison audience as he was wrapping up his concert that came just hours after Obama appeared at a morning rally in the same city with rocker Bruce Springsteen.   Dylan made his comments during his encore when he said, “We tried to play good tonight since the president was here today.”   He went on to say he thinks Obama will prevail Tuesday.   Dylan says, “Don’t believe the media. I think it’s going to be a landslide.”

6:23 am:  Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. In Ohio  stops at Columbus Ohio polling place #NBCPolitics http://t.co/FXLiNWaI

6:19 am PST:  Gallup published one last set of results yesterday, and found President Obama with a three-point lead among registered voters, and Mitt Romney with a one-point lead among likely voters.   But also of interest was the president’s approval rating: Gallup found that a 52% majority now approve of how Obama is doing his job.

The final Washington Post/ABC News poll showed  Obama scoring a 51% approval rating, tied for its highest point since the president ordered the strike on Osama bin Laden.   Every incumbent with an approval rating of 49 percent or higher won re-election, while every candidate with a rating of 48 percent or lower lost.   George H.W. Bush, the last incumbent to lose a re-election bid, had an approval rating below 40% on Election Day. The last Gallup poll in the fall of 1980 showed Jimmy Carter’s rating at 37%.

All of the recent nationwide polling puts Obama’s rating between 49% and 52%. That doesn’t make him a lock for re-election, but if he comes up short, he’ll be the most popular president to lose since the dawn of modern polling.

6:11 am pst: SD County officials released 901,923 ballots for today’s election, and had already received about 464,160 ballots as of Monday afternoon. They expect another 100,000 to 200,000 voters to return ballots at the polling precincts.

6:08 am PST:  San Diego County Registrar of Voters is expecting a big voter turnout. Deboral Seiler reported that a high turnout, increased mail ballots and expanded precincts could make the election tally a “protracted affair”.  She expects between 70% and 80% turnout among San Diego County’s record-breaking 1.56 million registered voters.

5:58 am – The Associated Press is reporting that Wisconsin voters will deal with a wintry mix of rain and snow as they head to the election polls around the state.   An inch or more of snow is forecast for northern Wisconsin, with cold rain to the south. It could be the coldest and rainiest weather in Wisconsin in more than three decades of presidential elections.   Observers say weather is a factor in voter turnout.   Despite the cold and wet weather, the AP reports that more than 300 people were already in line when a polling place in Milwaukee opened Tuesday morning.

5:56 am pst:  North Carolina NAACP received more than 600 phone calls complaining of voter intimidation at the polls on Monday. NAACP officials said they’d requested additional security at polling places from Attorney General Eric Holder and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and asked for a detailed report of reported instances of voter intimidation during both early voting and on Election Day.   “When you pull something like this up, a trailer hanging nooses … That’s a form of voter intimidation,” said NC NAACP President Rev. William Barber, according to WGPH. “I never thought in 20

5:54 am pst: Prediction: Obama will win.

5:47 am pst: First voting in nation: it’s a tie.  In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire — Residents of two tiny villages in northern New Hampshire headed to the polls at midnight, casting the first Election Day votes in the nation.   After 43 seconds of voting, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney each had 5 votes in Dixville Notch.

In Hart’s Location, Obama had won with 23 votes, Romney received 9 and Libertarian Gary Johnson received 1 vote. Thirty-three votes were cast in 5 minutes, 42 seconds.

Statute of Liberty after Sandy.

5:44 am PST: California’s highest court ordered an Arizona group on Sunday to disclose the donors behind an $11 million contribution to two California campaigns last month, but it remained to be seen whether voters will know the source of the money before Election Day.   Attorney General Kamala Harris and the state’s campaign finance watchdog had been seeking the donation records to determine whether Americans for Responsible Leadership is improperly shielding its donors’ identities.  This according to MSNBC.

The group gave money in October to a California-based political action committee that is campaigning against Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative and another initiative that would limit the ability of unions to raise money for political causes.   The group fought to withhold the documents and tried last week to appeal a Sacramento County Superior Court ruling that it must submit to an audit by the California Fair Political Practices Commission by 5 p.m. Thursday.

5:40 PST: Questions about voting today? See this Do I need a California ID to vote? Where is my Polling Place? The Quick and Easy Guide to Election Day

5:38 am PST:  Latino voter registration up in San Diego County.

The “Nuestro Voto, Nuestro Futuro” or “Our Vote, Our Future” campaign has been targeting 40 densely Latino populated precincts. The bilingual non-partisan campaign has reached out to nearly 30,000 Latinos, with fliers to a phone bank, urging them to register to vote.   “Out of that, [we have received] 6,000 pledges to vote,” said Norma Chavez-Peterson the campaign’s coordinator.   According to the San Diego County Registrar, of voters the push has been a success. Since February, more than 40,000 new Latino voters have registered countywide.

The campaign is also partnering with the ACLU to make sure voters know their rights. Tuesday the ACLU will have volunteers at polls across the county to answer any questions voters may have. You can call the campaign office at: 760-624-VOTO(8686).  The ACLU has also set up a voter hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) and in Spanish 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682).