When I mailed in my absentee ballot to my homestate of Florida two weeks ago, I had no idea how much time was saved by posting my vote. Throughout the day, Tulane University students waited about an hour in front of the Lavin-Bernick Center, Tulane University’s voting location. As I walked by, I was relieved that I had avoided the wait, but I was also encouraged to see so many individuals waiting to perform their civic duties.

 Young voters got a lot of attention in this election. Just like the candidates, we’ll see how they did.  Read the rest of this entry »

That was my neighbor tonight as I was leaving the house. Like so many people, she’d forgotten that the U.S. House District 2 race was a runoff, not a final election (both Bill Jefferson and Helena Moreno are Democrats).

The winner from that race will go on to face Anh “Joseph” Cao, the Republican candidate for District 2.

If you’re like my neighbor and displeased with the Dem choices, check out Cao’s site and learn about him. He’s coming in for a Gambit interview in the next week or so.

Obama takes Vermont. McCain takes Kentucky. No big surprise either way.

And we’re off. Carl Arredondo is doing the weather in another studio while Dennis Woltering, Angela Hill, and Dr. Ed Renwick are at the elections desk. Clancy’s ready to go on with them at 6:55. Mike Hoss is at some miniaturized version of the magic election wall that CNN can’t stop playing with:

Here’s the “craft services” table. Glad to see that the WWL people eat the same thing we do at Gambit…the dinner of blogging champions:

A friend of mine who is wired in at the highest levels to the Democratic Party called me at 5:45 p.m. today (Tuesday, Nov. 4, Obama Day) to give me the results of exit polls from key battleground states and some other larger states. If these exit poll numbers are anything like the final returns from those states — and I must caution that exit polls have a higher margin of error than “regular” polls — the race for president is going to be a landslide for Sen. Barack Obama.

Below are the percentages of the vote from the states my friend gave me.  In some instances, he was only able to give me the leader’s numbers, but in those cases that’s all one needs to figure out who’s winning.

Pennsylvania — Obama 66, McCain 34

Massachusetts — Obama 67, McCain 33

North Carolina — Obama 56

New York — Obama 75

New Jersey — Obama 53

Florida — Obama 53

New Hampshire — Obama 64

Ohio — Obama 58

Missouri — Obama 57

Indiana — Obama 56

Georgia — TIED at 49 each

South Carolina — McCain 50, Obama 49

Arkansas — TIED at 45 each

Virginia — Obama 64

As you can see, Obama is winning all the battleground states from which exit poll numbers are available, plus some traditionally Republican strongholds such as Indiana and Missouri. Again, I caution that exit polls can have large margins of error. But, these results are one-sided enough to portend a huge Obama win.

The local elections, I suspect, will be much closer. I’ll be on WWL-TV with Dr. Renwick starting at 6:55 p.m.  We will do five-minute “cut-ins” from CBS at 25 minutes and 55 minutes after each hour — plus “wall to wall” coverage on WULP (Ch. 2 on Cox).  End of shameless plug.

And just because the presidential race looks like a runaway, that’s no excuse for not voting if you haven’t done so yet. If you’re in line at 8 p.m., you’ll get to vote. We have some very important races on the local ballot, so get out there and celebrate your freedom.

More later.