New West Blog
Staples in Ballots are no good
Gallatin County Still Counting Election Ballots
Update: Gallatin County completed counting the remaining 10 precincts at 5:30pm. Obama won with 23,984 votes over McCain with 22,375 votes. Click more for complete Gallatin County results.
Gallatin County is still processing ballots through the counting machines, with over 15,000 ballots left and are not expecting to finish until late this afternoon.
The clincher is that over 21,000 of the absentee ballots returned were pocked with staples marks and could not be processed by the automated reader. All unreadable ballots were then presented to a 3-person board that recreates a duplicate ballot for scanning. Another setback was the courthouse still had a line of 150 people when the polls closed at 8pm.
These 10 remaining of the 36 Gallatin County precincts are the only ones in the state not counted. Some of the statewide close elections may hinge on Gallatin County's results, such as Secretary of State that currently holds a 2,000 vote difference.
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Obama-Mania Hits Boulder
Partying Like It’s 1992
Ohio was the turning point. When Barack Obama won the crucial Midwest state last night it popped the release valve on eight years of pent-up outrage, frustration, and shame for millions of Democrats and independents across the U.S.
Up to that point the several hundred Obama supporters gathered at the Boulder Theater had reacted with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety as early returns were reported by MSNBC and CNN on the big screen.
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Western Book Roundup
Westerners Among Whiting Winners
Last week the 2008 Whiting Writers Award for emerging writers was announced, and among the ten winners of $50,000 each were a couple of Western writers, Oregon native fiction writer Benjamin Percy (whom we featured here), and fiction writer Manuel Muñoz, who currently lives in Tucson and teaches at the University of Arizona. (There were also two California-based honorees, fiction writer Lysley Tenorio and poet Douglas Kearney.)
Oregon's Barry Lopez presented the awards, and Galleycat shared this video interview with him, shot at the event. Lopez said of the honorees, "The world's problems are not theirs to solve—they're the ones who will provide us the structure in which to think about how to address these things."
Also in the Roundup: The Center of the American West features immigration as the topic of this year's "Words to Stir the Soul," and the Wasatch Journal extends its story contest deadline.
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Montana Election 2008
Juneau Wins Office of Public Instruction, a First
At midnight, when it appeared Denise Juneau had won Superintendent of Public Instruction in Montana in Tuesday's election, she was poised to become the first Native American to win a statewide executive level position in Montana.
"As an American Indian, the Montana voters didn't pigeon-hole us, put is into one category," Juneau said. "It was based on who was qualified. It's very heartening, and it's significant to Montana right now."
On a night when voters mostly handed Montana's statewide races to Democrats -- even as voters seemed to split their votes down the ticket on legislative races -- the state embraced this first with only a touch of fanfare and controversy.
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Election '08
Montana: Presidential Race Tight in Early Returns9:55 - The head of the GOP in Yellowstone County was subdued in a telephone interview, saying "the absentee votes were heavily Democratic across the aboard," and that races he thought his party would win are closer than expected.
9:32 - In statewide races, Governor Brian Schweitzer, Senator Max Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg are all winning by wide margings, as expected. More interestingly, early returns are suggesting some strong Obama coattails in the competitive races for Attorney General, Secretary of State, and State Auditor.
8:54 - In Choteau County, in central Montana, McCain won by about 10% - compared with Bush's 33% margin in 2004. Missoula County just reported its early voting, and gave Obama a 6,000 vote margin. The big lead in the liberal University town is not a surprise, but politicos say the margin is even bigger than expected and bodes well for Obama.
8:45 - In Rosebud County, a tiny county in Eastern Montana that has now reported 100% of its votes, McCain won by just .6% - compared with Bush's 13% margin in 2004.
8:32 - Early vote totals from Billings and Helena show 24,204 votes for Obama, 20,768 for McCain - and only 713 votes for Ron Paul and 111 for Bob Barr. The low totals for Paul and Barr are a possible sign that the libertarian vote will not be as big a factor as some have anticipated.
8:15 - Polls closed in Montana a few minutes ago, and initial results from absentee ballots and early voting show a very close race at the top of the ticket. In Yellowstone County (Billings) - considered the bellweather for the state - Obama led 50% to 47% among the absentees. But with early voting around the country favoring Obama, that's not necessarily very telling. President Bush carried Yellowstone County with 61% of the vote in 2004 - and carried the state with 58%.
The Montana Secretary of State's website is posting results as they come in at http://sos.mt.gov/ELB/elections/2008/general/Counties/index.asp, though there isn't much there yet.
The Associated Press has projected that Governor Brian Schweitzer will be re-elected.
From the new west blog: Election Day 2008
Voter Supression Text Messages in Idaho and MontanaSome voters in Montana and Idaho have received a text message saying, "Flash: Due to very long lines, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday. Thank you. Please forward to everyone."
Of course, the polls close Tuesday night and the message is not true.
Secretaries of State for both Idaho and Montana made the announcement. Ben Ysursa, Idaho's Secretary of State, said he hopes it's someone's idea of a joke, and not an organized effort to illegally influence the outcome of the election.
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From The New West Blog
Montanan Protests Obama with ManureOnly in Montana.
A Whitehall man parked a load of manure across the street from the Democratic campaign office there to protest presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
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Election Day
Boosting Obama, Coloradans Vote Early
Equipped with a camp chair, a book, and a box of glazed doughnuts (Vote the Fried Dough Party!), I arrived at my polling place at 7:20 a.m. today prepared for a long wait. There was no one there. Nobody. [more]
Voting Problems Hotlines
Problem Voting? Here’s What to Do
Ready, set….VOTE.
But if you have any trouble voting, there is help.
Call 1-866-OUR VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for the voter’s hotline administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, if any action or condition you feel prevented or was intended to prevent you from voting. Just a few examples include polls opening late or closing early, "running out" of ballots or having your identity or voter registration status improperly challenged.
You should also report any action or condition you feel made it difficult for you to vote, including but not limited to; lack of handicapped accessibility and accommodation, lack of assistance for people with limited English ability, confusing ballots, lack of privacy while voting, or generally unhelpful or unknowledgeable poll workers or officials.
For immediate situations such as a ballot which marks the wrong candidate without you being able to correct it should be reported before you finish voting. Stop what you’re doing and get a poll worker (and watcher, if there is one) and show them the problem. Refuse to finish the ballot while you call the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. There are no special forms to use or procedures to follow--just call 1-800-253-3931.
If, for some reason, you can’t do those things and decide to finish the ballot, recruit some witnesses to the situation. Take photographs if it’s allowed. Write down precisely what happened – no detail is too tiny. Get a witness to write down what they observed. After the election, send copies of your documents to the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Washington, D.C.
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Election 2008
Obama’s Grandmother Dies; GOP Files Suit Over Use of Plane to Visit Her
The woman who raised Barack Obama, his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died today.
Also today, the California Republican Party sent a complaint letter to Federal Election Commission general counsel Thomasenia Duncan which says, "Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use" for his trip to see his dying grandmother.
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