Fenty Breaks Electioneering Law and Other Polling Tales
We've been pulling together our collective polling place experiences for a little round-up of the Potomac Primary Thus Far, but Josh Levin over at Slate's Trailhead blog has the scoop of the day: he caught Mayor Adrian Fenty pressing the flesh for Obama right in-between two signs prohibiting electioneering outside an Adams Morgan polling place.
And what’s Mayor Fenty’s likely punishment? “A person who violates the provisions of this paragraph shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than $50 or more than $500 or imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or both.”Classic! We hope the Mayor heeds your warnings, Dena.Fenty’s press secretary, Dena Iverson, told me that the mayor would be out all day today encouraging District residents to vote for Obama. When told that the mayor had been encouraging this reporter right next to a pair of “no electioneering” signs, Iverson sighed, “Oh, great.” She continued, “The only other polling place I saw him at, he was doing it outside the signs. I will make sure he will not accidentally cross any lines he’s not supposed to.”
Below you'll find some of our voting experiences from this morning - more than one of us encountered broken optical scanners, but otherwise voting seems to be going smoothly across the region. Feel free to add your experience in comments.
Photo by KCIvey
At the Boys & Girls Club in Columbia Heights: I went after the morning rush hour, at 9:45 a.m., but there was still a short line of people waiting. Only Obama signs could be seen outside the building, with a jovial woman in an Obama sweatshirt doing a little shuffle to keep herself warm. She was all by herself and only smiled, never spoke to anyone going in or out. All in all, it was pretty uneventful -- I waited about 3 minutes and was in and out. Though I'll add -- I love that D.C. still uses paper ballots. - Heather Goss
At Precinct 87 (Payne Elementary, 15th and C SE): I went early this morning (about 8:50 a.m.), with my two kids in tow. It did not seem particularly crowded at that point, although there was a healthy turnout, it seemed. We waited about ten minutes to get my little card, but that was only because just about everyone there had a last name from A to G. There were few supporters outside, although one man was handing out Obama flyers at the edge of the canvassing limit. - Charles Downey
At The James at the Riverhouse in Pentagon City, 8:32 a.m.: The line snaked around the corner in the basement of the Riverhouse in the Pentagon City neighborhood. Virginia is an open primary state, which meant voters had to register with both the Republican and Democratic registers before selecting a ballot, to prevent voter fraud. I waited more than an hour, and the Republican registry was empty as voter after voter asked for the blue card. One man, overheard talking on his cell phone in the hallway, remarked that he was "OK with both Obama and Hillary" and that he was voting for Huckabee because he "thought he would be easier to beat in the general election." -Stephanie Taylor
At precinct 84 (Stuart Hobson Middle School): The amount of early morning voters was normal. The hiccup was that the optical scanner had jammed and two poll workers were trying to make it work again. Some people ended up turning their ballots upside down and leaving them in a pile on a piano next to the scanner. Eventually someone in line spoke up about them needing to unlock the slot in front of the scanner so people could vote while they fix it. They did unlock it and everyone put their ballot in the slot. Not sure how these unscanned ballots will be counted. On top of all that, they didn't hand out "I voted" stickers. - Kelly Rand
In Falls Church: There wasn't a huge turnout when I was there around 8:30 a.m., but there was a pretty steady flow of people. The only signage or volunteer presence anywhere near my poling place was for Obama. - Amanda Mattos
At Shiloh Baptist Church in Shaw: There were a number of signs for both Clinton and Obama near the polling place (including several green ones I hadn't seen before that read "Clinton Country") when I went around noon. Two Obama supporters holding signs were standing just beyond the electioneering line, but they weren't talking to many people heading inside. They did get a number of honks from passing cars, however. The wait for the middle of the alphabet was significantly shorter than the beginning - I got my voting card and ballot within 3 minutes of entering. The blue stack of ballots for Democrats was predictably about 10 times larger than for other parties. - Sommer Mathis
At Miner Elementary (15th St. NE): I wish my surname started with A-G because there was no wait in that line, as opposed to my H-O line which probably had a queue of about 20 people by the time I got to the front of it. After I spent all of 10 seconds connecting my line I went to the optical scan machine just to discover it had a paper jam and I would have to deposit my ballot in what looked suspiciously like a recycling bin at the bottom of the scanner. - W. Jacarl Melton