November 3, 2004

The Five Hour Turnaround

There were lots of long faces at RNC headquarters in Akron when I stopped in there tonight at about 8:30 p.m. to drop off my report. It might have been because they too had all been up since 5 a.m. and had been through a long, emotional day that looked at that time to be ending badly for the President. High voter turnout and early reports of exit polling that favored Kerry had everyone at Bush-Cheney looking drained and down.

I had just spent the day in a city-run community center in the heart of this Democrat-dominated city, working as a Republican poll observer in a precinct that probably voted for Kerry to the tune of 9 to 1 over Bush (although I have no real way to validate that statement...it's just a "feel") Our turnout was huge, with over 65% of registered voters casting ballots. I was told that that number was probably artificially low, because those voter rolls have not been purged of dead or moved voters in years, so the actual rate of participation may have approached 75%.

There is much to report about my experience on Election Day, but that will have to wait until after I get some sleep, and spend some time at work, both of which I have shirked to an unhealthy degree in recent days. For now, it's enough to report that I have stayed up late enough to see Mr. Bush surge back from apparent defeat to nearly wrap up a second term. In the process, he has made the exit polling groups look silly, debunked the myth of the power of the "young, new voter", and turned the gloom at the RNC to celebration and anticipation. My sense of relief is exceeded only by my exhaustion.

Posted by dan at November 3, 2004 12:52 AM