Field Report #2

Just got back from a tour of Cleveland's 3rd and 6th wards. A few notes.

At precinct 3-I, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, 1,011 folks are registered to vote. By 3:30pm I was told roughly 350 folks had already voted. Keep in mind this was prior to the "after-work" push. A lady handing out stickers by the door indicated that most folks were indicating an overwhelming preference for Barack Obama. That's no surprise since the region is predominantly an urban, african american region.

On the way to the next location I passed one of Obama's team loading folks into vans to transport them to the polls.

The following poll was located a few blocks away in the 6th Ward at John Adams high school.

I don't think there's a better indication of what a crappy day it is in Cleveland that this guy who probably has the worst job in the world about now. He's been standing outside in the freezing rain all day promoting Charle Brown's campaign for probate judge. look at his right arm there...that's ice clinging to his jacket.

Inside at John Adams 25 folks were voting around 3:45pm. Phyllis, the presiding judge, indicated that turnout was similar to the 2006 general campaign and that she hadn't ever seen this sort of excitement in a primary campaign. She was a joy to talk to, and mentioned repeatedly the number of new, first time voters she'd seen. Specifically she brought up a young 25 year old woman who'd been driven to vote for the first time ever this year because it finally clicked with her that she could make an impact this time, and she felt like she had something at stake.

Speaking of first time voters, there were a slew of them at John Adams, including these young pollworkers.

As you can tell from behind Phyllis, the polls were rocking.