Interesting. I had seen on Twitter someone write that turnout was high in New Jersey’s cities — a good sign for Jon Corzine, and an indicator that the walking-around money was flying like ticker-tape at a Yankee World Series Championship parade — but a few readers in the Garden State are offering some counter-evidence:
I live in Montclair, New Jersey, which is big-time Democrat country. I voted at 8 a.m. and I was the only one there. Last year, the line was 6 or 7 deep continually and there were lots of Obama supporters outside with shirts and posters. Nothing at all this year.
A reader in Passaic County notices that lingering issue of ballot placement:
Daggett was on line K. It took me a minute to find him. I’m still worried about voter fraud, but I’m not longer worried about Mr. Daggett.
This report suggests that the suburbanites, who seem less likely to be pro-Corzine, are coming out:
I live in a small suburban Essex County town, Verona, which usually swings slightly Republican. In fact I can’t remember the last time the town was over 50 percent Democrat. Even Obama slightly lost to McCain. Of course, Verona is a tiny town of around 13,000 people.
When I voted this morning, before 10 a.m., the lady running the machine said she was very surprised at the amount of people who had voted already. She stated that I was the 115th person to vote on her station. There are probably about 10 or so voting places in Verona for reference. My district used to be a long time Republican strong hold in Verona but some of the Montclair/NYC elites have moved in but I’d still say that the majority in that district are Republicans. In any event the high turnout seems like it could be a positive sign early in the day.
And late last night, a reader shared this assessment, focusing heavily on my old hometown:
We do internal polls at the county level, and it shows the Democrats are in trouble in several assembly races… Metuchen is a Middlesex county belweather, we have approx. 4,000 registered Democrats, 2,000 registered Republicans, and 5,200 registered Independents. Metuchen usually goes for the Democrats in governor’s races and presidential races, but we all feel that this is going to be a “Florio Free in ’93” moment for Corzine. Normal Democrats in my town are not supporting Corzine. The folks outside the state don’t understand the depth of feeling against him since last year when he tried to monetize the highways and put tolls on roads that don’t presently have tolls. He has refused to stop spending on the unions contracts, he is building pre-schools with millions in borrowed money, in a state where kindergarten is not mandated, billions on Abbott Districts in poor cities with no educational results. I believe tomorrow night Christie will be the governor-elect. Although, NJ has a reputation for being corrupt, I know on a personal level (6 campaigns) that our elective process is much better than other states and has quite clear oversight guidelines and process regarding absentee ballots. As to keeping the polls open, I don’t believe we are going to get presidential levels of turnout. Obama was campaigning in Newark and Camden yesterday (African American areas) he has yet to come to the rank and file dem in the corridor ( 10 miles east and west of the Garden State Parkway) white blue collar and fed up with the outrageous property taxes.
Corzine has been dropping in InTrade, too…
UPDATE: Another intriguing observation:
I’m in New Brunswick NJ, home to Rutgers University and a city that votes very democratic- high student and hispanic population. Anyways, I voted at 9 and there was no one there. I was the 17th vote since the polls opened at 6. Now, maybe it means nothing (I’m in a quiet area of downtown New Brunswick, so it might just not be very busy), but I thought there would be more traffic- there is a local municipal issue on the ballot that has gotten a lot of publicity.
One other note- I had signed up to be a Christie challenger and even attended a training last weekend. However, no one from the Christie campaign was present (the training was run by the local county GOP) and despite numerous emails I never received my location or materials so I am not challenging today. I hope this is an isolated incident and not reflective of the Christie campaign’s organizational skills.
Perhaps this reader wasn’t needed; on Mark Levin’s program yesterday, Christie said his campaign had 300 lawyers ready to go to fight election shenanigans.