Get thee to thine polling place
It's not the low turnout election of 2010 in Wisconsin this time. Polls are open and
busy as soon as they opened. We all know that when we turn out in large numbers, we win. And
voters are turning out.
GOTV has been intense for about 2 months. It led to large numbers of early voters and a stream of optimism for those of us who want to remove the Republican infestation infecting our state. The numbers in the Milwaukee and Madison areas are much higher than 2010 and the 2012 recall despite the fact that the GOP has recently reduced early voting from 3 weeks and 2 weekends down to 1 week only with evening hours prohibited (evening hours previously determined by the town, city, or county).
OLB last night in Milwaukee
It's good news that voters are turning out. Voting in Democratic areas needs to be massive since the RW radio that saturates our state has been scaring their voters to the polls for well over a week.
Republican Governor Scott Walker, who got himself elected in 2010 on a lie promising "a laser-like focus" on creating 250,000 jobs, has had boatloads of cash, a never-ending stream of ads, lots of dark money ads lying about Mary Burke (including a great big lie at the last minute from easily debunked Republican extremists), and visits from Republican Rock Stars. Despite all of that, he's in serious trouble and has already been whining excuses for a couple of weeks (music to my ears).
We know this will come down to turnout. When we turn our folks out in large numbers, we win. And that's why I'm up early (well, also because I'll be driving voters to the polls today).
I'm encouraged by what I'm already seeing.
3:54 PM PT: I have returned.
UPDATE: Big turnout from the limited sources available. Heavy traffic at polling places and reports of so many same-day registrations that Milwaukee election officials had to dispatch 50 more poll workers to locations to process those registrations.
Good news.
6:46 PM PT: Polls closed 45 min ago. Still long lines at several Milwaukee polling places according to Journal Sentinel.
RESULTS:
Here's what I'm looking at for results:
Overall results here (data from AP, requires manual refresh).
If you prefer numbers to graphs, look here (you can manually refresh or set up 30 or 60 second refreshes).
County by county report is here (manual refresh)
Hope that helps.
UPDATE:
As if the results across America haven't sucked enough, AP has called Wi-Gov for Scott Walker. Oy.
Exit polls had things showing a teeny tiny lead for Walker, but actual votes didn't (hmmmm 2000).
Considering that we've likely had record-breaking turnout and Presidential level GOTV, I have no words.
Watch out, America. This schmuck wants to be President.
.