Dueling Grounds Films presents…

Hey, if you stumble across this, check it out. I can’t embed it and I don’t have a YouTube channel, but it was certainly fun to make.

Inserting a coffee shop into existing space

Through the day, I’ll be discussing some of our thinking about how we intend to integrate a new coffee shop into our existing space vs. the possibility of utilizing nearby space.

When Destinations Booksellers acquired this building in 2004, it already had a tenant in place. We determined that rather than eject the tenant, we would play out that lease, take the income, and make the necessary compromises to open the store in the remaining 60% of the space. It was probably a wise decision.

Later, we elected to terminate the lease and our tenant moved away, freeing up un-remodeled space to expand the bookstore. We’ve never been completely happy with the broken up spaces, but growth in revenues has never justified renovations in that former office space.

At the beginning, and again when the new space became available, we heavily researched the viability of opening some sort of coffee/dining operation in the store. It’s certainly not essential that the a bookstore have a coffee shop, and some would argue it’s not even desirable.

Our reasoning then was that a coffee shop is a completely different kind of business. The margins are different, the staffing is different, and the skills set is different. There’s not necessarily an overlap between people who buy books and people who eat out or prefer premium coffees and teas. We reasoned that with our resources, opening a coffee shop would constitute doubling down on our investment in New Albany, and that just wasn’t something we were prepared to do, no matter how viable the idea of a good shop in downtown is.

Along with others, we’ve tried to recruit other businesses and entrepreneurs to bring us a coffee shop, either here at our place or elsewhere in the walkable urban core. Those efforts have failed to bear fruit.

I can’t really say what has changed now. I suppose it’s the “grow or die” phenomenon. We certainly haven’t outgrown the bookstore. Now, in our fifth year in New Albany, we think we know the market. We get new customers every day, but the economic panic has frozen the wallets of even the most avid book-lovers. The idea of outgrowing our 3,000 square feet because of New Albany’s demand for books is, frankly, ludicrous.

Accordingly, the way to achieve the necessary growth is to give you more reasons to visit the store. Presumably we’ll get our book buyers down to the store more often when they realize they can get a great coffee, soup, sandwich, or salad without necessarily buying a book. And if you don’t SEE the books, you’re certainly not going to buy them. So we should see a boost in bookstore sales by adding the coffee shop.

But what will make the coffee shop go, what will make it a viable business, is acceptance by the community of our high quality foods and beverages. We believe more and more people will rediscover New Albany’s urban core when they have choices. At first, that will mean dining choices, so we’re situating ourselves to offer something that, heretofore, was not available here. Our bill of fare, and our prices, won’t be duplicates of what we already have downtown. As more choices become available, we’re convinced that we will be an important part of the growth in awareness of the desirability of spending time downtown.

So, it’s a go. Over the past six weeks, our floor planning has changed almost daily. We considered the building next door. We considered putting the coffee shop in the front of our building, with the bookstore occupying the rest of the space.

Our building was built in 1955 and designed as office space. No accommodations were made for modifying the building for other uses. It’s on a concrete pad – no subfloor, basement, or crawlspace. Utility service enters at the rear, off of our parking lot.

Putting a fully plumbed kitchen, even the small one envisioned for our type of establishment, in the front of the building would require an extensive run of plumbing, probably running along the walls above the floor. We think that’s both unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.

Our current plan is to install the coffee counter/kitchen at the rear of the store. We’ll have to cordon (and tarp) off the area during the construction phase, and we’ll have to reconfigure both our bookstore sales counter and our bookshelf layout. Floor drains will have to be cut, separate water lines for tap and filtered/softened water will be installed, and our natural gas lines and electric service will have to be upgraded significantly.

We don’t intend to have the kind of kitchen that requires a hood since we won’t be frying up hamburgers, etc. We’ll be offering salads, soups, and sandwiches, probably grilled paninis, both meat-based and vegetarian. While are ingredients are going to be high quality, we don’t really plan to be a fine dining establishment. Or should I say, we don’t intend to be a “fine dining” establishment like The Windsor or The Bank Street Brewhouse. We’ll use the best ingredients, including locally grown produce in season, but our niche will be the low-cost lunch and the light supper. If you’re really hungry, order two paninis, or take the soup and the panini. And of course, our lattes and cappuccinos will be mighty tasty and filling, too.

But back to the “infrastructure.” I’m envisioning a counter that runs 12 feet on a diagonal from the back entrance hallway, then turning 45 degrees to run 8 or nine more feet toward our north wall. Under one floor plan, that would give us something like 315 s.f. of kitchen space.

Within that space we’ll need a triple-sink for washing, a hand sink, a prep sink, and a mop sink. We’ll need to fit a stand-up cooler, an ice maker, storage shelves, and perhaps a freezer, though we might settle for a domestic refrigerator/freezer. We’ll have a milk cooler and perhaps a third, glass-front cooler to display some of the chilled/refrigerated items for sale (soda, yogurts, salad, etc).

One of the big questions we have right now is whether or not to incorporate our coffee roaster into the kitchen. Where we put that will be an irrevocable decision since we’ll have to cut a hole in the roof to vent the heat from the nearly 500 degree roasting process. There’s some appeal to installing the roaster in a public area, like they’ve done at Hob Knobs up on the hill. Coincidentally, my current preference is to install here the very same roaster (Diedrich) that they use up there.

However, since we will be both a bookstore and a coffee shop, the idea of installing an elegant roaster out on the floor for customers to admire has to be weighed against the value of that same space as dining tables or bookshelves. We’re very likely to put that in the kitchen, where it will remain visible, but out of the flow of customer traffic.

That leaves one compelling question: Where to install seating?

The front windows, particularly the western window, seems to be an obvious choice. But do we also install seating back near the counter? Just how many people do we need to seat? 20? Fewer? Do we want bar-like seating, tall tables?

Join me on my own Buffalo Trace

Geographic names generally make sense…or, at least, made sense when they were applied. In Indiana, French Lick is a funny-sounding name, but besides it being the hometown of basketball legend Larry Bird, it has a centuries-old history. The name, of course, comes from the fact that there were natural salt licks that drew wildlife from all over South Central Indiana, making it a natural place for hunters and trappers to do their deeds and then trade for their needs.

The Buffalo Trace is today a faded relic, but when the Northwest Territory was being settled, pioneers found a natural pathway into the hinterlands. American Bison (buffalo) traversed the area for fodder (and salt), creating a roadway of sorts from here on the Ohio River to the territorial capital of Vincennes, far in-state from the big river. Our own Paoli Pike marks the uphill stretch of our buffalo trace.

Accordingly, as we begin this little journey, our default name for the coffee shop operation will include Buffalo Trace. We invite you to participate in this trivial yet consequential decision, though. There’s still time for branding this venture in a creative way.

Before I present a list of choices, I do want to mention the previous front-runner…The Dueling Grounds. Besides the obvious word play (OK, not so obvious…grounds?…coffee grounds?). Legend tells us that a nearby landing at the mouth of Silver Creek, below the Falls of the Ohio, was the frequent site of duels of honor for Kentuckians. Indiana was not yet a state, while Kentucky was, so the idea of leaving one of the United States to seek justice was appealing, especially since the crossing was only a half-mile.

One tale has it that Abraham Lincoln himself took the crossing to fight a duel, killed a man, and never returned to Kentucky. That’s quite obviously untrue. Indiana became a state in 1816. Lincoln was born in 1809. It’s awfully hard to credit the idea that Young Abe fought a duel at the age of 7, yet a local museum trumpeted the “fact” as recently as this decade.

So here are SOME choices:

The Dueling Grounds
Buffalo Trace Coffee House
Buffalo Trace Coffee Co.
Buffalo Trace Coffees & Teas
Buffalo Trace Bean & Leaf Co.

Feel free to provide your own. We’ve decided to brand the coffee operation separately from Destinations Booksellers to provide the maximum future flexibility. Destinations Booksellers’ Coffee Shop just doesn’t cut it, nor does Destinations Coffee.

Universal, federal election registration now

John Adams, by David McCullough

 John Adams, founding father and second President of the United States, he who has been almost uniformly lionized as a result of David McCullough’s John Adams and the derived HBO miniseries, would hate this idea.

The myth of America is government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The only problem with Mr. Lincoln’s formulation is that it has never been so.

I submit that now is the time to at least approach that ideal by removing the last impediment to universal suffrage – the mishmash of inconsistent and discriminatory state voter registration rules and practices.

In my reading of history, the cry of states’ rights has always been the cry of those seeking to hold back the tide of progress. Opponents of universal suffrage (the defenders of elite ”qualifications,” poll taxes, and other measures designed to maintain control of the levers of power) can be counted on to say that the benefits of 50 different states’ rules are part of some treasured “laboratory of democracy.”

Voter registration needs to be uniform across state boundaries. Particularly for federal elections, there is no justification for denying the right to vote based on anyone’s state of residence.

The Republicans, who have used the phantom of voter fraud as a cudgel with which to bash those who want to expand the franchise, ought to seize on this proposal because it is one that will eliminate practically all possibility of fraud.

A single, national, automatic registration would reduce the confusion and anger that results from eccentric and erroneous purges of the voter rolls.

The New York Times reports that “independent experts say easier registration and voting methods would ensure that huge crowds like those on Tuesday [Nov. 4, 2008] turn out without being discouraged by the long delays experienced in many states.”

Universal voter registration “would mean that all eligible voters are automatically registered,” said Rosemary E. Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting.

“A system of automatic registration, in which the government bears more of the responsibility for assembling accurate and secure lists of eligible voters, is a necessary reform,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who is working on legislation intended to overhaul how eligible voters register, said Thursday. “All eligible Americans should be able to cast their ballot without barriers, and the registration problems we saw on Tuesday and during the weeks that preceded Election Day make clear that the system needs improvement.”

………………………………

But how states maintain and verify their lists has become a serious problem and led to many lawsuits around the country. Before the election, Colorado, Louisiana and Michigan were found to have wrongly removed thousands of voters from their rolls.

The Election Protection Hotline received more than 20,000 reports from states like California, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania of voters who showed up at the polls to find they were not on the rolls. The only option for them was to cast a provisional ballot, which is not recorded if poll workers cannot find a matching voter-registration record……………………………….

Why not make registration automatic, verifiable, and universal…now?

“POTUS is on the move…”

The secret is out, direct from the U.S. Secret Service, itself.

Barack Obama’s codename is Renegade. Agents refer to Michelle Obama as Renaissance. And for what it’s worth, Malia is Radiance, and Sasha is Rosebud.

While this news made the mainstream press, my agents in the Treasury Department have provided me with the long list of names that would have been used in the event any of the other candidates had achieved the position of President-elect.

Barack Obama – Renegade
John McCain – Hand Grenade
Hillary Clinton – Lady Marmalade
Rudy Guiliani – Tirade
John Edwards – Promenade
Mitt Romney – Bridesmaid
Mike Gravel – Medicaid
Dennis Kucinich – Dennis Kucinich

I invite you to contribute your own…

The Bible and Sonny Bono

Front-line bookselling is, in the Confucian formulation, “interesting,” to say the least. Today I received a call from a woman asking, “Do you know anything about this ‘Bible Illuminated?’”

In that I rarely want to admit that I don’t know everything, I stalled as I began to search my databases for more information. While I was giving my “delay” spiel, the caller made sure to let me know that she had no intention of buying or ordering the book from me – she just wanted to know if I was familiar with it.

By this time, I had the information up on my screen and said, “Is this the Swedish book?” She replied, “YES….”

Swedish publisher Dag Söderberg, unhappy with other contemporary offerings of the New Testament, commissioned the publication of a glossy magazine version of the Gospels, Epistles, etc. and elected to use a variety of contemporary and celebrity photos to accompany the book.

This is not unique nor original. I’ve sold a few (very few) contemporary, magazine-like bibles. Yawn. It has been done, but it’s a gimmick that succeeds only as a grandma-to-grandson kind of gift. Söderberg says he found other attempts to be lacking, so he offered up Bible Illuminated, a $35 bible.

But this post is not about the bible. It’s about the call.

Byron Crawford, columnist for Louisville’s Courier-Journal, a Gannett newspaper, shined the light on the bible, to mostly gentle reaction. Except for my caller.

Now that I was up to speed on her topic of the day, she proceeded to tell me that these heathens had included pictures of Sonny Bono and other celebrities and it was time to draw the line and suppress this book/bible. She wanted to be assured that my independent bookstore would not be offering this bible to the public.

I told the lady that while I had not sold the book, I most assuredly would be selling it…only to hear “You will????”

P.S. It turns out that in a sidebar to the magazine, where the Gospels talk about serving humanity, an illustrated list of humanitarian activists is provided. It includes U2’s Bono. Not Sonny Bono.

In Indiana, we have enough actual censorship that it’s important that we provide a place where people can learn for themselves. Our store motto is “There’s no idea that’s as dangerous as ignorance.” I’ve literally never run across a book that was “too dangerous.” And despite this flareup of misunderstanding but active intolerance, I’ll continue to make books available regardless of public clamor to suppress them.

Incidentally, without actually having seen the book, my first instinct was to invite the lady down to the store to examine the book with me. Considering that the translation is the innocuous Good News Bible, approved by the American Bible Society, I seriously doubt that it would be objectionable to 95% of our local churches. I’ll be bringing it in on Thursday. It may not sell, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be inhibited by reactionaries.

By the way, at the time I did not know the local metro paper had mentioned the book. I suspected that some radio preacher had railed against the book and as soon as he signed off, one of his listeners started calling all the bookstores around to make sure it never went on the shelves.

Chill, conservatives…Obama won’t be as bad as you suspect

I can’t speak from inside the Obama tent. Barack Obama was always acceptable to me, but he was probably my ninth choice. Joe Biden ranked higher in my calculations…somewhere behind number one, a certain Southern-bred Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy that Sen. Obama, er, President-elect Obama is planning his transition. I want to see Michelle and the girls take over the White House.

Our new President is clearly capable of leading, of inspiring, of motivating his followers.

Here I make my case that his followers should include all of America. My point is not to lecture, not to say you “ought” to give him your allegiance as a gesture of respect for our political process. Because I don’t think it’s necessary for anyone to lay aside his or her beliefs, shake hands, and say “wait ’til next-next-next-next year.”

Obama will govern from the center. Aside from his personal biography, there’s little that is radical about him. That’s why he won. That’s why your neighbors, whom you thought you knew, voted for him. That’s why that fellow in the pew in front of you voted for him. The fellow at the end of the bar? The one you thought you knew? He voted for Obama, too. There’s nothing radical about Obama now, and as President there will be even less that is radical.

The Obama presidency will indeed be transformational. Perhaps it will be as much a transformation as dramatic as from horse-drawn buggy to internal combustion engine. Maybe even as much as from abacus to transistor to microchip.

But it won’t be radical. Don’t just accept him – embrace him. And think for yourself. Don’t let people who don’t have your best interest in mind tell you what you “ought” to think.

In fact…

No, wait. Let the OSticats explain it for me.

Please visit me at Open Salon

For a little while, I’ll be posting at Open Salon. Please visit my site, and while you’re there, sample the work of the other “OSticats.”

Election Day archive

FLASH: The Floyd County precinct being tracked by the major media, New Albany 18, has returned a virtual tie: McCain 333, Obama 331. Bill Lohmeyer, chairman of the Floyd County Election Commission, tells me that NA 18 “seldom, not never, votes Democrat for President of the United States. Generally speaking, if it goes Democrat…the county goes overwhelmingly Democrat. That’s not the case this year with Obama losing the county.”

One person in the room said it indicated that the more “well off” were voting for Obama. Unsaid was that this was an unexpected development.

The combined major television networks and the Associated Press, then, just learned that a heavy Republican bellweather precinct has split evenly, evidence that Obama may have exceeded expectations in this swing state.

TIDBIT: I’m waiting, along with other media, for NA 38 and NA 32 and then I’m heading to Rich O’s to drink, kibbitz, watch TV, and blog reactions. I hope to invite patrons to blog their reactions live until the wee hours.

TIDBIT: Linda Moeller’s prediction of 40,000 voters in Floyd County is going to be proved wrong. Turnout will be less than 65%, in all likelihood.

TIDBIT: Things are not looking good for the Obama campaign in Floyd County. The physically closest precincts are D, the farther (relatively) are R, and with ~ 50% of the vote in, Obama trails by almost 7 percentage points. That’s a surprise to me, and bodes ill for any hope of an Obama red-state capture. This county has voted for the Republican congressional candidate (a hometown man) for the past three elections in Lee Hamilton’s old congressional district.

TIDBIT: First statewide returns (meaningless, but provided): McCain 12,761, 52.29%; Obama 11,398, 46.71%

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 60) .  .  .  .  .        58   96.67
           REGISTERED VOTERS – TOTAL .  .  .  .  .    54,606
           BALLOTS CAST – TOTAL.  .  .  .  .  .  .    35,373
           VOTER TURNOUT – TOTAL  .  .  .  .  .  .             64.78

          STRAIGHT PARTY
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           DEMOCRATIC (DEM) .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     6,236   49.42
           REPUBLICAN (REP) .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     6,215   49.26
           LIBERTARIAN (LIB).  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       167    1.32
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    12,618
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         0
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    22,755

          PRESIDENT & VICE PRESIDENT OF THE US
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           1 OBAMA / BIDEN (DEM)  .  .  .  .  .  .    15,394   44.26
           2 MCCAIN / PALIN (REP) .  .  .  .  .  .    18,955   54.50
           3 BARR / ROOT (LIB) .  .  .  .  .  .  .       295     .85
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       133     .38
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    34,777
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         6
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       593

          GOVERNOR & LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           4 THOMPSON / OXLEY (DEM)  .  .  .  .  .    12,374   36.15
           5 DANIELS / SKILLMAN (REP).  .  .  .  .    21,303   62.23
           6 HORNING / KELLY (LIB).  .  .  .  .  .       547    1.60
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         6     .02
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    34,230
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        23
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,123

          ATTORNEY GENERAL
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           7 LINDA PENCE (DEM) .  .  .  .  .  .  .    14,556   44.33
           8 GREG ZOELLER (REP).  .  .  .  .  .  .    18,283   55.67
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,839
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,535

          SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           9 RICHARD D. WOOD (DEM).  .  .  .  .  .    13,989   42.76
           10 TONY BENNETT (REP)  .  .  .  .  .  .    18,679   57.09
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        50     .15
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,718
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         3
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,655

          US REPRESENTATIVE DIST 9
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           11 BARON P. HILL (DEM) .  .  .  .  .  .    19,015   55.27
           12 MIKE SODREL (REP).  .  .  .  .  .  .    14,206   41.29
           13 D. ERIC SCHANSBERG (LIB)  .  .  .  .     1,181    3.43
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    34,402
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         5
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       969

          STATE REPRESENTATIVE DIST 70
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 8 OF 8 PRECINCTS COUNTED)
           14 PAUL J. ROBERTSON (DEM).  .  .  .  .     3,044   52.85
           15 TIM HUNT (REP).  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,716   47.15
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     5,760
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         0
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       441

          STATE REPRESENTATIVE DIST 72
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 50 OF 52 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.15%)
           16 WILLIAM C. COCHRAN (DEM)  .  .  .  .    13,851   49.91
           17 EDWARD D. (ED) CLERE (REP).  .  .  .    13,903   50.09
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    27,754
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,420

          JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT NO. 1
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           18 SUSAN L. ORTH (DEM) .  .  .  .  .  .    24,031  100.00
           NO CANDIDATE POSITION  .  .  .  .  .  .         0
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    24,031
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         0
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    11,344

          JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT NO. 2
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           19 GLENN G. HANCOCK (DEM) .  .  .  .  .    19,607   59.11
           20 CHRIS LANE (REP) .  .  .  .  .  .  .    13,565   40.89
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    33,172
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,203

          JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT NO. 3
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           21 MARIA GRANGER (DEM) .  .  .  .  .  .    17,847   53.74
           22 RICHARD R. FOX (REP).  .  .  .  .  .    15,362   46.26
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    33,209
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,166

          COUNTY RECORDER
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           23 DARLENE S. MCCOY (DEM) .  .  .  .  .    15,976   49.38
           24 LOIS NAVILLE ENDRIS (REP) .  .  .  .    16,379   50.62
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,355
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         0
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,020

          COUNTY TREASURER
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           25 BETTE A. BUECHLER (DEM).  .  .  .  .    15,395   48.06
           26 LINDA L. BERGER (REP)  .  .  .  .  .    16,637   51.94
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,032
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         0
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,343

          COUNTY CORONER
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           27 LESLIE E. KNABLE (DEM) .  .  .  .  .    18,245   56.56
           28 JOHN PATRICK CLICK (REP)  .  .  .  .    14,014   43.44
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,259
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         2
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,114

          COUNTY SURVEYOR
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           29 THOMAS J. BOOFTER (DEM).  .  .  .  .    15,528   48.52
           30 WILLIAM B. (BILL) GIBSON (REP)  .  .    16,475   51.48
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,003
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,371

          COUNTY COMMISSIONER DIST 2
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           31 CHARLES FREIBERGER (DEM)  .  .  .  .    17,258   52.82
           32 DAVE MATTHEWS (REP) .  .  .  .  .  .    12,663   38.75
           33 GEORGE T. MOUSER (IND) .  .  .  .  .     2,755    8.43
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,676
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        13
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,686

          COUNTY COMMISSIONER DIST 3
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           34 DENNIS O. ROUDENBUSH (DEM).  .  .  .    15,942   49.13
           35 STEVE BUSH (REP) .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,506   50.87
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    32,448
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         9
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     2,918

          COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER AT-LARGE
          VOTE FOR  3
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           36 TED HEAVRIN (DEM).  .  .  .  .  .  .    15,949   17.87
           37 CAROL SHOPE (DEM).  .  .  .  .  .  .    14,867   16.66
           38 BRAD C. STRIEGEL (DEM) .  .  .  .  .    16,418   18.40
           39 DANA FENDLEY (REP)  .  .  .  .  .  .    14,338   16.07
           40 HARRY T. HARBISON (REP).  .  .  .  .    13,248   14.85
           41 LARRY M. SUMMERS (REP) .  .  .  .  .    14,418   16.16
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    89,238
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        18
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,868

          RETAIN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SHEPARD
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,676   74.30
           NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     5,768   25.70
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    22,444
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         8
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    12,923

          RETAIN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE BOEHM
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,164   73.21
           NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     5,916   26.79
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    22,080
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         4
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    13,291

          RETAIN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DICKSON
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,270   73.99
           NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     5,720   26.01
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    21,990
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         7
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    13,378

          RETAIN COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE DARDEN
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,138   73.51
           NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     5,815   26.49
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    21,953
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         9
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    13,413

          RETAIN IN TAX COURT JUDGE FISHER
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 58 OF 60 PRECINCTS COUNTED 96.67%)
           YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    16,121   72.81
           NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     6,019   27.19
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    22,140
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         2
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    13,233

          RETAIN NEW ALBANY TWP ASSESSOR
          VOTE FOR  1
              (WITH 39 OF 41 PRECINCTS COUNTED 95.12%)
           YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     7,956   53.62
           NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     6,883   46.38
                   Total .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    14,839
              Over Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         1
             Under Votes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     6,262

TIDBIT: In early returns, Obama/Biden is underperforming incumbent U.S. Rep. Baron Hill (D-9). Hill won, then lost, then won again in the past three Congressional races in S.I., and is running away with the race this year, against the same Republican opponent, Mike Sodrel.

Speculation in Southern Indiana Democratic circles is that the Obama run is over, that there will be heavy, heavy, unexpected voting on the Republican side, and there’s some evidence that might be true.

Where lines were expected to be long, they weren’t. Where lines were expected to be short, they weren’t.

TIDBIT: Lloyd Wimp reports that the precinct he was election judge for, Lafayette 3, has gone overwhelmingly Republican. Only one local Democrat came away with a majority. That’s not unexpected in the rural suburban paradise.

 6:35 If I’m any kind of analyst, there is no Bradley effect in Southern Indiana. NA 1 is the only precinct reporting and it gives 242 votes to Obama Biden, 100 to McCain, and 4 to others.

6:30 p.m. First results – We have a precinct across the street from the courthouse. It’s a Democratic landslide. No surprise.

NA 1 is in and it’s big for the D column. NA 17 is in, we’re waiting on printouts.

6:24 p.m. Elections board – Phones are ringing off the hook here. This is crunch time for poll workers, who are trying to get their boxes closed up and delivered to the courthouse. Circuit Court Judge Terrence Cody was present at 6 to adjudicate any requests to extend voting hours. I’m told by the elections chairman that no such request was necessary in Floyd County. We might start seeing some partial numbers in about 15 minutes.

6:06 p.m. Live from the elections board -  Things are both relaxed and tense here within sight of the Ohio River. The polls are officially closed in most of Indiana. The clerk’s staff are busy telling phone callers it’s too late to vote.

My seatmate is here to gather the results from one precinct, New Albany 18. You know what that means? The gentleman’s name is Ken Bracey and he’s a one-night employee of Edison/Mitofsky stationed here to call in the results of a key precinct. E/M is the workhorse for the media consortium hoping to use the results from NA 18 to project how the state is going to go – red or blue. Ken’s a teacher at Johnson Elementary School, teaching fifth graders.

Election Commission Chairman Bill Lohmeyer says that NA 18 is heavily Republican. In fact, it always goes Republican. County Clerk Linda Moeller confirms that. She also says that last time an E/M employee was in her office, he broke the water cooler.

Speculation in Southern Indiana Democratic circles is that the Obama run is over, that there will be heavy, heavy, unexpected voting on the Republican side, and there’s some evidence that might be true.

Where lines were expected to be long, they weren’t. Where lines were expected to be short, they weren’t.

Find the time to skip over to this link on Talkingpointsmemo.com. I won’t try to make it mine, but I sure wish I could write that well.

HUGE THANKS TO MY REPORTERS IN THE PRECINCTS 

Indiana Election statistics and returns 

5:10 p.m. In transit to the courthouse – Here’s where you might find the actual Hillary voters who continue to say PUMA. I’ll be transitioning to the office of the elections board soon, as local polls close in just 50 minutes. Statewide results won’t bleed out until 6 p.m. CST to accommodate the southwest and northwest Hoosiers. For the next few hours, this will be a microcosm of Indiana as I focus on a self-selected role as the Internet news source for local returns. As the evening wears on, I’ll do my best to expand the coverage. Floyd County can, however, be a bellweather. We’re pretty purple, despite a serious advantage in Democratic registration. If we don’t go for Obama by 15 points, you can expect the GOP has found a sub rosa counter-offense to the Obama/Biden campaign.

4:40 p.m. – Surrender, Dorothy – Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, and all those offering free stuff to voters with an “I Voted” sticker – have now surrendered and are giving stuff out free to anyone smart enough to demand it.

4 p.m. Floyd County courthouse - Just got off the phone with County Clerk Linda Moeller, chief elections official. A team from the Indiana Secretary of State’s office dropped in while touring the state and asked what her biggest headache was. “Voter ID,” she said. “I’ve had to deal with lots of angry people being [Ed.: legally but burdensomely] turned away. They want their vote to count tonight. They don’t want to vote on a provisional ballot.” The state team alleged that they hadn’t heard that problem from other counties.

Moeller offered as an example a student at IU Southeast who had a state-issued photo ID from the university, credit cards, and other documentation proving his identity. He simply left his driver’s license back at the dorm. Under the law, he was turned away.

Of the 60 optical scan voting machines in the county, one memory pack failed. That means that the ballots aren’t being counted on site. This could have severely delayed returns (but not voting), but Moeller directed that all the ballots be locked up and delivered to the courthouse. It actually means those workers can go home sooner than their colleagues at other locations. A working memory pack will be installed downtown and the ballots will be run through one more time to get the count.

3:45 – Indiana -  The stink is beginning. The IndyStar political blog reports this e-mail from the deputy to Indiana Secretary of State Rokita. The gist is that a key election official is lecturing an Obama captain “I don’t want to have to deal with any electioneering issues that the political parties want to stew up today.”

The response: “…we certainly don’t need lectures from your office on election law. With all of the problems we are witnessing across the state today including the Vanderburgh county clerk threatening to close the voting down an hour earlier because there are just too many voters, perhaps you should spend time worrying about voter rights and not a bunch of junk.”

BREWING: Reports coming in from our county’s largest voting location, the Floyds Knobs Community Club, where four sizable precincts are all voting, indicate a voter rebellion. We previously reported high numbers there, and the McMansion precinct is voting at 65% of active voters already at 3:30. Anger is being directed at poll workers…because a certain national beverage company is promising free lattes for anyone wearing an “I Voted” sticker. FKCC pollworkers have no such stickers available. They didn’t run out, they just didn’t have them.

If that’s the biggest stink raised today, we’re lucky. As a partisan, I’m more concerned at the high vote totals from the presumably GOP-friendly wards. Now, off to call the elections board…

3:30 p.m. Neighboring Clark County – Some confusing reports are trickling in from our neighbors. I’m getting pretty low volumes in the cities and astounding numbers from the rural areas (Borden, Starlight, Sellersburg).

3:15 p.m. New Albany, Ind. – NA 28 voter reports he was voter 589 just 30 minutes ago. [881 active voters] That’s 67% of the actives, 53% of the registered, in a near suburban precinct. Here’s one of those precincts where there are a whole lot of voters who are inactive, skewing the assessment, if you ask me. The reporter also said “I am looking forward to 6pm and a pint of brew at Richo’s. Have 2 waiting on me, eh Roger?”

I’m going to need that Elector. Rich O’s and NABC will have TVs so you don’t have to stay home alone to watch the returns. Somebody start working on a song for the big moment, whenever it comes. We Shall Overcome might be just a little somber if the mood is celebratory.

2 p.m. – New Albany, Downtown – I’ll be sitting fretfully in the offices of the election board, live-blogging our county’s results as they come out of the bubble memory. Our high school radio station will have reported the numbers on the air, unofficially.

Part of the fretting involves the “party” that will be taking place at The New Albanian Brewing Company. When the polls close at 6 p.m., the pubs can open, and I won’t be there for a pour of Elector, my favorite of NABC’s craft brews. Those first in line get to take home a commemorative Elector pint glass.

Elector was brewed in honor (?) of the 2000 Florida recount brouhaha by the folks at the world’s sixth-best brew pub and by the brewery that promises “These machines kill fascists.”

So, I won’t be there at 6, but I’ll be there. Count on it.

Here’s a link to a particularly illuminating set of directions for precinct election officials, from the office of Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita.

1:35 p.m. New Albany - A local reports that at noon, 320 voters had been recorded in NA 3 (Fire Department HQ) [720 active voters]. Pretty strong for mid-day.

1:30 p.m. Indianapolis – Here’s a link to the Indianapolis Star politics blog. They have the resources and clout to talk directly with the party chairmen in the state capital. Dan Parker, Democratic Party Chairman, says heavy turnout combined with Obama’s visit to Butler University today bodes well for Indiana to become a “blue” state, presidentially speaking.

12:50 p.m. New Albany, Ind. - Linda Moeller, Floyd County Clerk, is the chief election official, working with and under the authority of the elections board. She’s a Democrat. Yesterday she sat with me for an interview and projected a 70% turnout in Floyd County.

Just now, she called to report smooth sailing so far. At opening time, Moeller’s office received only 7 phone calls from the precinct workers. She said those were a combination of “machines acting goofy” and “nervous poll workers,” but confirmed that no one was prevented from voting by those brief delays.

She also answered a previous query about poll watchers, those people sent by parties or candidates to guard the integrity of the vote and to report anomalies to their campaigns. Moeller says the are not required to wear ID, but must present valid credentials to the judge of the polling place.

Comparing notes with me, Moeller stands by her projection of a 70% turnout in Floyd County (40,000 voters), a number that, again, no one living can recall.

Interestingly, things have been so calm today at the office that the office-bound Moeller was turning to local TV stations’ field reports to try to find out what was going on at the polls. In short, an amazingly smooth day, so far.

Moeller also defended the 3-booth setup at NA 18, saying that was perfectly normal. She could not assess how much time the average voter takes on this ballot, however.

Prepare for a lull over the next few hours. Things will begin to heat up after 3 p.m. as the final rush begins.

Reporters, please continue to feed me with your personal reports or anything regarding Indiana elections that you believe would be of interest to our readers. Thanks.

BY e-mail: I voted around 9:00 am at Geo[rgetown] 2. It only took five minutes. But as I left, the line was out the door as over 20 folks waited to vote. As I approached the poling place I was driving east on IN 62 from Georgetown and witnessed a young woman and young child taking down Obama and Roudenbush signs from the roadside and putting them in their trunk. I mentioned it to a couple of folks both inside and outside the poling place. No ones seemed interested. [Ed. Not necessarily malicious. Many candidates recover their signs on Election Day to place them at precincts themselves.]

The parking lot at the Tunnel Hill Church where I voted was completely full! In the thirty years I have voted there I have never seen half that many cars. There was a steady stream of cars coming and going.

Looking forward to an interesting few days.

Here’s a link to a particularly illuminating set of directions for precinct election officials, from the office of Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita. Did you know? Rokita is a Republican, reelected in 2006. But in Indiana, the reins of each county’s election machinery (i.e., the majority on the election board) go to the party of the SoS candidate who gets the most votes in that county. In Floyd County, the Democratic candidate won, so the Democrats control the elections, at the top, and at each precinct.

Interestingly, in 2006, the Republicans were in charge, but they were so unused to the role, they could not rustle up enough workers to man the precincts, and thus were forced to recruit experienced Democrats to work the polls.

Noon New Albany, Ind. – Floyd County’s Lafayette township is a high-growth part of our small county, having transitioned from extremely rural to somewhat of a subdivision and headed, seemingly, toward sprawltastic exurban. Accordingly, the county seat gave up three precincts in advance of this election to accommodate voting demand in the northwest part of the county. One site (Floyds Knobs Community Club) covers four precincts. This noon report is instructive. I assume a Republican bent to the electorate, based on past history.

Laf 3, 4, and 6 are reporting from 325 to 350 voters recorded as of noon. Laf 5 reports ~ 550. Active voters are as follows:
3 [696], so let’s say 50% turnout at noon.
4 [908], so let’s say 38% turnout.
6 [736], so let’s say 47%.
5 [1,397], so let’s say 40%.

Remember, I’m calculating turnout based on newly available “active voters,” a metric that is somewhat unique to Indiana. In these precincts, its about the same because so much of the population is younger and newer to their environs. County-wide, however, about 12% of registered voters are “inactive.”

BY e-mail: 9:50 a.m. at precinct [NA] 39 (Christ’s Community Church of the Nazarene), I cast the 211th vote – not a bad turn out so far -  Traffic was bad getting in there, but the lines were moving.  It only took me about 10 minutes to cast my ballot! [773 active voters]

11:45 a.m. New Albany, Ind. – A reporter from NA 18 (Head Start/Corydon Pike) says that in that location voters were surprised to discover only three voting booths available. For voters at 6 a.m., that resulted in a 30-minute wait. While this is nothing compared to some reports from around the country…If every voter were perfectly staged in line and took only 7 minutes to vote, that might be enough for the expected turnout [814 active voters]. And we know that voters don’t stage themselves that way.

Another caller expressed concern about a free-floating person wandering around the polling place without identification of any sort. We concluded it was probably a campaign poll-watcher, but when an official was asked “what’s she doing here?” he replied, “Oh, she’s an inspector.” Question: Are poll-watchers required to wear some form of identification badge while monitoring the voting? This took place in NA 20 (American Legion Lodge Hall/McDonald Lane). Obviously, a poll-watcher can’t wear candidate or party signs, but if voters are uneasy about lurkers (and this one wasn’t bothering anyone, per se), isn’t that a problem?

11 a.m. New Albany, Ind. – Here’s a first pass on turnout in Floyd County, Indiana, where about 65% of active voters (55% of all registrations) are forecasted to vote today, with 15% having already voted. Early and mail-ins have been recorded by now.

Some stunning numbers are being reported in the early hours, but no problems to speak of. The longest wait reported has been 25 minutes during the first hour (6 a.m.) of voting.

NA 36 (Prosser Vocational School) had 150 voters at 7:30. [1,256 active]
NA 32 (Prosser Vocational School) had 171 voters at 7:30. [1,414 active]
NA 5 (S. Ellen Jones School) had 92 voters at 8:45. [485 active]
NA 9 (Ekin Recreation Center) had 37 voters at 6:30. [630 active]
Laf 3 (Floyds Knobs Community Club) had 285 voters at 10:45. [696 active]
Laf 5 (Floyds Knobs Community Club) Some wraparound lines early. [1,397 active]
Laf 6 (Floyds Knobs Community Club) Very smooth early hours. [736 active]
NA 41 (Floyd County 4-H Fairgrounds) 75 waiting in line at 6, 25 minutes to vote them. [1,020]
NA 14 (Slate Run School) had 149 voters at 8 a.m. [824]

———————

Much to everyone’s surprise, the battle for Indiana’s 11 electoral votes has turned into a real contest for the first time since 1948. While I’ll cover our own local election during the day part, once the results are in I’ll go broader with races of national and statewide significance. There are better places to chase the numbers, but in our county, this is the place for the earliest online results for local numbers.

Thanks Roger (The New Albanian), for playing along…

News bites from Hoosier precincts

Walter Shapiro says the counties to watch in Indiana are Howard (Kokomo), a conservative rust-belt county hammered by the auto manufacturing slump, and Hamilton, which went 3 to 1 for Bush in 2004, but in which Obama has staged an aggressive outreach effort. If these counties show Obama strength, even cutting into the expected Republican majority, the counting is over.

Howard Dean’s pollster adds this early returns guide sheet.

Howey Politics Indiana: 6,300,000 early votes
Brian Howey, Indiana’s preeminent independent political reporter, predicts an unlikely Obama victory, citing “47 satellite offices, the more than $5 million spent on TV, the 49 visits to the state by the Illinois senator, the way the “change” narrative has obviously moved so many Hoosiers.” He compares the tightness of the race to the April Democratic Party primary, in which Hillary Clinton edged Obama by 1.14 percentage points. 

Evansville closes early voting despite dozens in line
Following the letter, but perhaps not the spirit of Indiana law, Vanderburgh County election officials shut down early voting precisely at noon, despite the fact that what appears to be dozens of voters were waiting in line. VIDEO available. But another county office at least waived the parking fines for those stuck in line all morning.

Indianapolis triples early voting totals
Early voting in Indiana’s largest county is either a measure of enthusiasm or evidence that voters fear major problems and perhaps voter suppression on Election Day. Long lines are expected at polling places across the state.

Vigo County bellweather of U.S.voting
One Indiana county is known for the uncanny way its voters seem to track the national voting trend.

Tracking the candidates’ visits to Indiana
The Indianapolis Star tries to recount all the visits to Indiana by the major party candidates. They include breakout boxes for McCain, Palin, and Obama. Biden and Palin both made stops in Southeastern Indiana during the general election period.

McCain drops in to Indy airport on election eve; first visit since July 1
The GOP standard-bearer made his first stop in the Hoosier State since July 1 when he summoned supporters to an airport hangar while en route to points west.

Obama will visit Hoosier State on Election Day
It’s almost unheard of, but both Barack Obama and Joe Biden will continue to campaign outside their home states on Election Day. Obama’s visit to Indiana follows a Monday night airport stop by Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Ballots challenged by GOP Tuesday won’t be counted in Nov. 4 reports
The Marion County GOP intends to challenge a raft of absentee ballots on Tuesday. A county judge ruled Monday that those challenged ballots will be set aside for review by the bipartisan election board and will not be counted in Tuesday’s returns.

Ball State-area registration forms delayed, threatening right to vote
200 applications for new registrations, most coming from the Ball State University Zip code in Muncie by mail and arriving on Oct. 9, three days after the deadline for registration, were ignored by Delaware County officials because they were “too busy.” None of those registrants will be eligible to vote today.

Previous table-setting posts:
Hoosier breakfast reading
Indiana: Four corners and a middle
Stay up late for Indiana results

I blog at Open Salon, too.

Election Day Live from Indiana

HUGE THANKS TO MY REPORTERS IN THE PRECINCTS 

LATEST NEWS is here at my Open Salon blog.

Indiana Election statistics and returns 

Here’s a link to a particularly illuminating set of directions for precinct election officials, from the office of Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita.

12:50 p.m. New Albany, Ind. - Linda Moeller, Floyd County Clerk, is the chief election official, working with and under the authority of the elections board. She’s a Democrat. Yesterday she sat with me for an interview and projected a 70% turnout in Floyd County.

Just now, she called to report smooth sailing so far. At opening time, Moeller’s office received only 7 phone calls from the precinct workers. She said those were a combination of “machines acting goofy” and “nervous poll workers,” but confirmed that no one was prevented from voting by those brief delays.

She also answered a previous query about poll watchers, those people sent by parties or candidates to guard the integrity of the vote and to report anomalies to their campaigns. Moeller says the are not required to wear ID, but must present valid credentials to the judge of the polling place.

Comparing notes with me, Moeller stands by her projection of a 70% turnout in Floyd County (40,000 voters), a number that, again, no one living can recall.

Interestingly, things have been so calm today at the office that the office-bound Moeller was turning to local TV stations’ field reports to try to find out what was going on at the polls. In short, an amazingly smooth day, so far.

Moeller also defended the 3-booth setup at NA 18, saying that was perfectly normal. She could not assess how much time the average voter takes on this ballot, however.

Prepare for a lull over the next few hours. Things will begin to heat up after 3 p.m. as the final rush begins.

Reporters, please continue to feed me with your personal reports or anything regarding Indiana elections that you believe would be of interest to our readers. Thanks.

BY e-mail: I voted around 9:00 am at Geo[rgetown] 2. It only took five minutes. But as I left, the line was out the door as over 20 folks waited to vote. As I approached the poling place I was driving east on IN 62 from Georgetown and witnessed a young woman and young child taking down Obama and Roudenbush signs from the roadside and putting them in their trunk. I mentioned it to a couple of folks both inside and outside the poling place. No ones seemed interested. [Ed. Not necessarily malicious. Many candidates recover their signs on Election Day to place them at precincts themselves.]

The parking lot at the Tunnel Hill Church where I voted was completely full! In the thirty years I have voted there I have never seen half that many cars. There was a steady stream of cars coming and going.

Looking forward to an interesting few days.

Here’s a link to a particularly illuminating set of directions for precinct election officials, from the office of Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita. Did you know? Rokita is a Republican, reelected in 2006. But in Indiana, the reins of each county’s election machinery (i.e., the majority on the election board) go to the party of the SoS candidate who gets the most votes in that county. In Floyd County, the Democratic candidate won, so the Democrats control the elections, at the top, and at each precinct.

Interestingly, in 2006, the Republicans were in charge, but they were so unused to the role, they could not rustle up enough workers to man the precincts, and thus were forced to recruit experienced Democrats to work the polls.

Noon New Albany, Ind. - Floyd County’s Lafayette township is a high-growth part of our small county, having transitioned from extremely rural to somewhat of a subdivision and headed, seemingly, toward sprawltastic exurban. Accordingly, the county seat gave up three precincts in advance of this election to accommodate voting demand in the northwest part of the county. One site (Floyds Knobs Community Club) covers four precincts. This noon report is instructive. I assume a Republican bent to the electorate, based on past history.

Laf 3, 4, and 6 are reporting from 325 to 350 voters recorded as of noon. Laf 5 reports ~ 550. Active voters are as follows:
3 [696], so let’s say 50% turnout at noon.
4 [908], so let’s say 38% turnout.
6 [736], so let’s say 47%.
5 [1,397], so let’s say 40%.

Remember, I’m calculating turnout based on newly available “active voters,” a metric that is somewhat unique to Indiana. In these precincts, its about the same because so much of the population is younger and newer to their environs. County-wide, however, about 12% of registered voters are “inactive.”

BY e-mail: 9:50 a.m. at precinct [NA] 39 (Christ’s Community Church of the Nazarene), I cast the 211th vote – not a bad turn out so far -  Traffic was bad getting in there, but the lines were moving.  It only took me about 10 minutes to cast my ballot! [773 active voters]

11:45 a.m. New Albany, Ind. - A reporter from NA 18 (Head Start/Corydon Pike) says that in that location voters were surprised to discover only three voting booths available. For voters at 6 a.m., that resulted in a 30-minute wait. While this is nothing compared to some reports from around the country…If every voter were perfectly staged in line and took only 7 minutes to vote, that might be enough for the expected turnout [814 active voters]. And we know that voters don’t stage themselves that way.

Another caller expressed concern about a free-floating person wandering around the polling place without identification of any sort. We concluded it was probably a campaign poll-watcher, but when an official was asked “what’s she doing here?” he replied, “Oh, she’s an inspector.” Question: Are poll-watchers required to wear some form of identification badge while monitoring the voting? This took place in NA 20 (American Legion Lodge Hall/McDonald Lane). Obviously, a poll-watcher can’t wear candidate or party signs, but if voters are uneasy about lurkers (and this one wasn’t bothering anyone, per se), isn’t that a problem?

11 a.m. New Albany, Ind. - Here’s a first pass on turnout in Floyd County, Indiana, where about 65% of active voters (55% of all registrations) are forecasted to vote today, with 15% having already voted. Early and mail-ins have been recorded by now.

Some stunning numbers are being reported in the early hours, but no problems to speak of. The longest wait reported has been 25 minutes during the first hour (6 a.m.) of voting.

NA 36 (Prosser Vocational School) had 150 voters at 7:30. [1,256 active]
NA 32 (Prosser Vocational School) had 171 voters at 7:30. [1,414 active]
NA 5 (S. Ellen Jones School) had 92 voters at 8:45. [485 active]
NA 9 (Ekin Recreation Center) had 37 voters at 6:30. [630 active]
Laf 3 (Floyds Knobs Community Club) had 285 voters at 10:45. [696 active]
Laf 5 (Floyds Knobs Community Club) Some wraparound lines early. [1,397 active]
Laf 6 (Floyds Knobs Community Club) Very smooth early hours. [736 active]
NA 41 (Floyd County 4-H Fairgrounds) 75 waiting in line at 6, 25 minutes to vote them. [1,020]
NA 14 (Slate Run School) had 149 voters at 8 a.m. [824]

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Much to everyone’s surprise, the battle for Indiana’s 11 electoral votes has turned into a real contest for the first time since 1948. While I’ll cover our own local election during the day part, once the results are in I’ll go broader with races of national and statewide significance. There are better places to chase the numbers, but in our county, this is the place for the earliest online results for local numbers.

Thanks Roger (The New Albanian), for playing along…

News bites from Hoosier precincts

Walter Shapiro says the counties to watch in Indiana are Howard (Kokomo), a conservative rust-belt county hammered by the auto manufacturing slump, and Hamilton, which went 3 to 1 for Bush in 2004, but in which Obama has staged an aggressive outreach effort. If these counties show Obama strength, even cutting into the expected Republican majority, the counting is over.

Howard Dean’s pollster adds this early returns guide sheet.

Howey Politics Indiana: 6,300,000 early votes
Brian Howey, Indiana’s preeminent independent political reporter, predicts an unlikely Obama victory, citing “47 satellite offices, the more than $5 million spent on TV, the 49 visits to the state by the Illinois senator, the way the “change” narrative has obviously moved so many Hoosiers.” He compares the tightness of the race to the April Democratic Party primary, in which Hillary Clinton edged Obama by 1.14 percentage points. 

Evansville closes early voting despite dozens in line
Following the letter, but perhaps not the spirit of Indiana law, Vanderburgh County election officials shut down early voting precisely at noon, despite the fact that what appears to be dozens of voters were waiting in line. VIDEO available. But another county office at least waived the parking fines for those stuck in line all morning.

Indianapolis triples early voting totals
Early voting in Indiana’s largest county is either a measure of enthusiasm or evidence that voters fear major problems and perhaps voter suppression on Election Day. Long lines are expected at polling places across the state.

Vigo County bellweather of U.S.voting
One Indiana county is known for the uncanny way its voters seem to track the national voting trend.

Tracking the candidates’ visits to Indiana
The Indianapolis Star tries to recount all the visits to Indiana by the major party candidates. They include breakout boxes for McCain, Palin, and Obama. Biden and Palin both made stops in Southeastern Indiana during the general election period.

McCain drops in to Indy airport on election eve; first visit since July 1
The GOP standard-bearer made his first stop in the Hoosier State since July 1 when he summoned supporters to an airport hangar while en route to points west.

Obama will visit Hoosier State on Election Day
It’s almost unheard of, but both Barack Obama and Joe Biden will continue to campaign outside their home states on Election Day. Obama’s visit to Indiana follows a Monday night airport stop by Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Ballots challenged by GOP Tuesday won’t be counted in Nov. 4 reports
The Marion County GOP intends to challenge a raft of absentee ballots on Tuesday. A county judge ruled Monday that those challenged ballots will be set aside for review by the bipartisan election board and will not be counted in Tuesday’s returns.

Ball State-area registration forms delayed, threatening right to vote
200 applications for new registrations, most coming from the Ball State University Zip code in Muncie by mail and arriving on Oct. 9, three days after the deadline for registration, were ignored by Delaware County officials because they were “too busy.” None of those registrants will be eligible to vote today.

Previous table-setting posts:
Hoosier breakfast reading
Indiana: Four corners and a middle
Stay up late for Indiana results

I’m cross-posting at Open Salon as one of their swing-state reporters, so feed me with what ya got, you betcha!