HN Explorer

Tell HN: If there is one shocker on election night, it's Georgia.

18 points by robg ↗ HN
"1,994,990 people voted early in Georgia. 3,301,875 total voted in Georgia's presidential race in 2004. Let that sink in."

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/on-road-atlanta-georgia.html

30 comments

[ 0.33 ms ] story [ 40.4 ms ] thread
trickjarrett
We'll see how many surprises there are tonight. I expect that one way or another people will be in the streets when the election ends, either celebrating the victory or rioting in anger. Let's hope it's not the latter.
kirse
What country are you from that riots after an election?
DTrejo
We hope we are in a country that is devoid of apathy and full of citizen participation.
khafra
That's one thing that's always struck me about certain other countries' legislative bodies. South Korea, for instance, has a long tradition of fistfights on the legislative floor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4wn70xPxzc). They also have one of the best telecommunications infrastructures in the world; perhaps we should encourage pugilistic resolutions to Congressional filibusters in the USA.
eru
How will Congressional immunities influence the legal consequences of a fist fight?
DTrejo
It will mean free fisticuffs.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
anamax
In some large US cities, "celebrating the victory" is a riot.
anamax
> I expect that one way or another people will be in the streets when the election ends, either celebrating the victory or rioting in anger.

Which people?

Not to put to fine a point on it, but no one thinks that McCain's supporters will riot if McCain loses while it's almost assumed that Obama's supporters will if Obama does. Curiously enough, this difference is seen as reflecting well on Obama's supporters and even Obama himself.

RavingGoat
Which is worse fraud or anger over fraud?
rrhyne
I'm white as a sheet and I'll be rioting if McCain wins. Heh.
Niten
> no one thinks that McCain's supporters will riot if McCain loses while it's almost assumed that Obama's supporters will if Obama does.

Assumed by whom? Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'd recommend you stop watching Fox News before your brain rots.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
cthulha
I think McCain supporters will go batshit crazy if he loses: they'll be convinced that fraud was involved, rather than people getting sick and tired of Republican incompetence.
deathbyzen
Not to put too fine a point on it, say I'm the only bee in your bonnet!
jhancock
I am from Georgia, voted absentee from Shanghai. This is the 6th time I've voted for a president. Up to now, I've never picked a winner. I'm hoping this time will be different ;).

The turn-out numbers are amazing. If there is one lasting change from this election cycle, I hope it is that people get involved, vote, and stay on top of their elected officials; federal, state, and local.

icey
Why not just make a link to the article? I can't wait for tomorrow.
Alex3917
I was in college for the last two elections. If I walked all the way across campus on election day, I'd only see maybe a couple other people wearing "I voted today" stickers. I'm not there today to compare, but at least based on Facebook activity it seems like the turnout is going to be WAY bigger.
hugh
I clicked the "I voted" button just to make it go away. (I didn't vote, of course, cuz I'm not a US citizen. Erm, not that that's gonna stop some people...)
dmr83457
I heard some figure recently that in polling in previous years about 36% of students registered to vote said they are actually voting. This year it is around 88%, and that doesn't consider an increase in students registered.
dnaquin
Keep in mind that lots of college students vote absentee.
chris11
I'm currently in college right now, and this is the first election I've been able to vote in. This also the first election where I've donated any money to a campaign. I also have noticed a lot of activity at my college. Hopefully it carries over into other elections.
nickb
Looks like the history will be made today!
breck
I don't see how this is surprising at all. If you were given 20 days to vote and people voted randomly then you would expect about 95% of voters to have voted before today. Given that voting is an important thing that you probably don't want to procrastinate, I expect more than 95% of people would have already voted. On the contrary it is probably habitual to wait til the big day, but I wouldn't read too much into that number.
tptacek
Votes aren't uninformly distributed. Most people vote on election day.
transburgh
Not all states provide early voting. The vast majority of votes will be cast today.
bgtony
I am in Ga.. wife waited 3 hours in line to vote early. People camped out last night to be the first in line today.
tptacek
Things I'm paying attention to in GA:

* Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, is from Georgia, popular there, and on the ballot; I've seen predictions that he'll draw as much as 2%. I'm not a Libertarian, but I'm guessing his votes get siphoned off of McCain.

* Saxby Chambliss is running within the MOE of Jim Martin, his Dem challenger. Chambliss took Max Cleland's seat in a campaign where he ran ads comparing Cleland, who lost 3 limbs in Vietnam, to Osama bin Laden. Chambliss evaded the draft.

ejs
just waited just under 2 hours to vote here in GA, we'll see how this goes...