I got this via email from CNS (Citizen's Notification Alert) for Maryland:
...Governor Martin O’Malley has cancelled early voting for Monday, Oct. 29. At this time, early voting for Tuesday, Oct. 30 through Thursday, Nov. 1 is scheduled to take place as planned. Early voting hours for Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 are 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily.
Election Law provides that “[i]n the event of a state of emergency, declared by the Governor in accordance with the provisions of law, that interferes with the electoral process, the emergency proclamation may: (1) provide for the postponement, until a specific date, of the election in part or all of the State; (2) specify alternate voting locations; or (3) specify alternate voting systems.” Md. Code Ann., Election Law Article, Sec. 8-103(a).
The Governor’s Office and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency are actively monitoring weather developments in order to determine whether additional changes to the early voting schedule may be necessary to protect public safety.
I thought that highlighted portion was interesting. So it sounds to me like even if weather screwed with election day, people would still get a chance to vote on an alternate day? At least that's the way I read it.
So yeah, it sucks that early voting is cancelled for Monday, but it wasn't cancelled today, and it sure wasn't cancelled yesterday when my family went to vote!
Yesterday my husband and three children went to early vote. Two of my kids are eligible to vote. My son is a minor. But guess what? He voted anyway. :-)
Okay, but seriously, they allowed him to come in the booth with me, and I let him press the button for President Obama. I can't tell you how proud I was to see him do it, and he was grinning from ear to ear. Of course I finished off the ballot myself, so it was technically MY vote, but you get the idea.
Anyway, voting opened at 10:00 A.M., and by the time we got there (around 11) the line wrapped around the building, and went all the way down the street. There were a surprising number of African Americans out. I'd say the crowd was about 90% AA, which is interesting because I live in a VERY RED area in Maryland!!
Overall, the wait was about two hours and no one complained. Everyone was just happy to be there. From the conversations I overheard, a lot of African Americans indicated that they wanted to get ahead of Sandy, but that was only part of the reason they came yesterday.
A LOT of them said they were mainly out because of all of the voter suppression efforts in other states. Read that sentence again.
In fact, one African American man walked past us while making his way to the back of the line (which was another block away). He was with his five-year-old son, and the whole time he kept shouting: "Let's get this done, people. OBAMA! OBAMA!" lol
Yes, the GOP's voter suppression efforts have basically backfired---ACROSS THE COUNTRY. So if minorities in a dark blue state like Maryland (and in the very RED part of the county that I live in) are this determined to GOTV because of stuff happening in other states, I can only imagine how fired up minorities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida ... etc... are!
After I voted, I went to a seating area to wait for my family to finish. This Italian guy came and sat next to me, and we struck up a conversation. Once he determined who I voted for, we discussed how amazing the turn out was. The man was overjoyed to be out to cast his vote. I've never seen anyone so happy. :-)
Although we weren't allowed to have phones in the voting booth, he admitted to sneaking one in anyway and managed to get a picture of his ballot before he pressed Enter. He said he wasn't taking any chances. He wanted his vote for Obama documented. lol
Here's a few pictures my teenage son took of yesterday's crowd.
So yeah, early voting is cancelled for Monday in Maryland, but no biggie. The same people who planned to vote on Monday, will be back on Tuesday, and if it's closed, they'll be back on Wednesday, etc... etc. People are DETERMINED TO VOTE, and if they have to wait in line for hours and hours on end, then that's just what they'll do.
Since we want Obama to win the popular vote, every vote is important---even in BLUE MARYLAND.