Election Day '08

Breaking News: Sam Bennett is still safe

So we knew presidential contenders get their own security details.

Apparently some local congressional candidates do, too. Or at least Sam Bennett does.

Charlie Dent's Democratic challengers showed up at the Dem's Brew Works party tonight complete with two security guards - one in a uniform, one in a suit, complete with a Secret Servicey earpiece.

Since the Brew Works seems like pretty friendly territory for a Democrat tonight, so colleague Jarrett Renshaw asked a Bennett spokesman what was up. The explanation for the security: "She's shaking a lot of hands today."

In case anyone is worried about Bennett's safety, there were apparently no direct threats today...

Norco Dems in on the party atmosphere

This is really no surprise, but since we've already posted something about the Lehigh County Dems, it's only fair that we give the other half of the Lehigh Valley some attention, too.

Colleague Tom Coombe is over at a Democratic Party party in Bethlehem. As in Lehigh County, they're pretty jazzed tonight. A few minutes ago, when the networks started calling Ohio for Obama, Coombe said "it was like Obama himself had walked in."

'Electric' atmosphere at Dem party

We still don't know who the next president will be, but news that Obama has apparently won Pennsylvania is charging up some local Democratic Party parties.

Colleague Jarrett Renshaw is stationed at the Allentown Brew Works tonight, where local Democratic big-wigs are watching election returns. As soon as election-watchers began declaring the state for Obama, he reports, party-goers whipped out their cell phones to call friends and the atmosphere became "electric."

UPDATE: Jarrett reports via Darryl Isherwood that there are more than 200 folks partying at the Brew Works. Every time a state is called for Obama, they cheer. Every time a state is called for McCain ... well, they don't cheer...

And PA has apparently gone for Obama...

So people are apparently still casting their ballots in some areas, but several of the networks have already gone and called Pennsylvania for Obama.

More information shortly...

And the polls are now closed...

...or at least they're closed if you aren't standing in line already.

Voting was scheduled to conclude at 8 p.m., but it looks like local election officials are keeping their promise to let anyone who's been waiting in line cast their ballots.

If you weren't standing in line at 8 p.m., though, you're out of luck. Colleague Arlene Martinez is still over at the polling place at Allen High School. Several dozen people are still waiting to vote there, but she reports she just saw a guy who tried to get in at 8:02 get turned away.

Paper ballots dispute in Philly

If they’re called emergency ballots, why not count them immediately?

That’s the argument the Pennsylvania chapter of the NAACP is making in Common Pleas Court this afternoon.

With problems involving broken machines and lines in Philadelphia, the NAACP has filed a lawsuit urging the city of Philadelphia to count paper emergency ballots tonight, not lump them in with the provisional ballots offered voters whose names don’t appear on the rolls, or whose eligibility is in question.

Provisional ballots won’t be processed until later this week.

A federal judge ruled last week that counties must offer voters paper ballots if half a poll’s machines go down.

- Reporting by Scott Kraus

Shamrocks, Guinness and O'Bama

Editor Margie Peterson sent us the following:

I voted about 3:15 p.m. in the Salisbury Township 3-1 precinct and a poll worker told me that 50 percent of the eligible voters in the precinct had voted by then. I was able to vote in five minutes.

A quick aside:

I got a call this afternoon from a friend in Dublin, Ireland who told me the Irish are completely glued to this U.S. election and love Obama. They’ve taken to spelling his name "O’Bama" and have found a distant relative on his mother’s side who came from Ireland. She said this election is all the talk on the Irish TV and newspapers.

Can you imagine the airwaves in the United States being clogged with news about ANY other country’s election?

What do YOU want the new president to do?

Features writer Marion Callahan, who recently started a fun new Web-based feature called "Marion's Open Mic," spend part of today wandering around asking voters what they think the new president's first priority should be. Here are a few of the responses:

“I think the president should balance the budget so our children aren’t left with debt. And he should take a stance on healthcare,” said Andrew Clymer, waiting at Bethlehem’s Concordia Lutheran Church polling station on 4th Street.
“We need to get the economy straightened out and bring the troops home," said Kenneth Clause of Lower Saucon. "Let them fight their own war. That’s the way I look at it. But it may not be up to the president. The congress has to give the president what he wants. So it’s up to congress to straighten the country out – with the president’s help of course.
“I think the first priority should be the economy and fixing things at home. The international problems might be with us for a while, so we should work on what we’ve got at home and get the economy moving and people’s confidence in the U.S. back up,” said Donna Nagy, a Lower Saucon resident voting at the Leithville Volunteer Fire Co. “Gas has come down, yet every time I go to the grocery story, prices are rising, healthcare costs are rising. What’s driving that?”

Marion will have more on voters' priorities in Wednesday's paper...

Free coffee for everybody!

So you may have heard about Starbucks offering free coffee to people who vote today.

Whoops! Turns out that offering people freebies in exchange for voting is kind of illegal in some states.

According to various reports, the coffee giant is now offering a free tall coffee to anybody who asks today.

- Reporting by Mike Duck

Bucks responds to voting problems

We told you earlier about Bernice Rose, an inspector of elections in Bucks County who showed up today and found it she wasn't listed as a registered voter in her longtime polling place, which she also helps run.

A little bit ago, we heard from Bucks County spokeswoman Stacey Hajdak about that. She said there were isolated cases of people who were registered but were not listed on the voter rolls or showing up at the wrong polling place. Those problems were rectified by poll workers calling the county election board to check voter registration information. In some cases, people voted with a provisional, paper ballot until their status can be verified.

Also, people who are in line when polls close will be able to vote, she said.

“Anyone who is in line at 8 p.m. will vote tonight,” she said.

- Reporting by Bob Orenstein