Photo by sxnoel
>> It’s Election Day. DCist will be out and around the area all day today, as voters in D.C., Maryland and Virginia elect a president, senators, members of Congress and city officials and consider numerous ballot measures. Here’s what we’ll be watching for today.
>> Expect to wait in line for a while, though. The Washington Times reports that while 11 percent of D.C. and Maryland voters opted to cast their ballots early, lines today are expected to be very long. We’ve been getting a steady stream of polling-place updates via Twitter and email, and will be monitoring the situation throughout the day.
>> Virginia is going to be freaking nuts today. After hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spending, with many of the resulting commercials being seen in the Washington television market, the Old Dominion will finally—finally!—get a break from those ads after tonight. But this is also the first election in which Virginia voters will be required to bring identification to the polls. Previously, voters who failed to do so simply had to sign a sworn affidavit confirming their identities. Now, they’ll get provisional ballots that will only be counted if they present their ID to election authorities within three days of today. The New Republic worries the law could have “an outsized impact” if the tally in Virginia is extremely close.
>> Today is the equivalent of Christmas in Allbritton-land, right? With that in mind, consider reading this essay by Alex Pareene in the new issue of The Baffler that dissects Politico. According to Pareene, Politico’s entire ethos is about pleasing a certain manic aggregator: “Matt Drudge may no longer rule the political world, but the fedora-sporting right-wing recluse is still John Harris’s dreamboat.”
Briefly Noted: Pedestrian killed by VRE train … Keeping track of those Hill rats who went to campaign this year … Thies: D.C. should demand vote-by-mail … Oh, Washington Times editorial page, don’t you ever change (spoiler alert: crazy) … FBI searches for suspect who committed 2000 bank robbery in Alexandria.
This (Election) Day in DCist: On November 2, 2010, there were few—well, OK, zero—surprises in D.C.’s general election. On November 4, 2008, we ranked jurisdictions by the quality of their “I voted” stickers.
