Fraternity Endorsment - Zachary Tracer/The Chronicle
Handmade Sign - Zachary Tracer/The Chronicle
filed at 3:46 p.m.
Those anxious to start tallying election returns can digest the results of the earliest vote totals released from Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, NH. The small towns, which have a combined population of 115 people, traditionally open their polling sites just after midnight on Election Day in order to produce the nation’s first official election results.
Sen. Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain by a tally of 15 votes to six in Dixville Notch. The Democrat also outpaced the Republican 17 to 10 in Hart’s Location. Could this be a sign of things to come? It is certainly an unusual tradition, but don’t jump to too many conclusions: the most recent polls have shown Obama with a comfortable lead in the state.
filed at 3:24 p.m.
Our exclusively online columnist here at The Chronicle, Jacob Wolff, has written today about the election from a place very far from North Carolina: Spain. Though his column is, as usual, a bit more focused on humor than on serious events, his “American abroad” status does offer a unique perspective on today’s historic events:
On a serious note though, go vote. When you do vote, think about how there are billions of people out there who are truly less fortunate than you. If I’ve learned anything while I’ve been here in Spain, it’s that this election just might affect the rest of the world more than it will affect many Americans. There are billions of people suffering across the planet every day, and the impact the United States has on these people can’t be understated. So please, when you do vote, I hope you think about which candidate will not only be best for the United States, but also for peace in the rest of the world…
While he does go on to suggest one specific candidate, Wolff does point out something more general that people may tend to forget. The decision citizens of the United States will make today will most certainly have implications around the world. Just what those implications are, though, remains to be be seen.
Catherine Butsch, a writer on our abroad blog, The Reformation of Pangea, also wrote about the U.S. election today. She writes from Paris, France, a place she claims is “just as interested in the Presidential elections as we [Americans] are.” Here’s a brief excerpt from her post:
At first I was surprised how invested everyone here seems in the election. As I embarrassedly admitted to a friend, most of the time I don’t care about elections in other countries, so why do they care about ours so much? But what Annie said makes sense. If Barack is really “the candidate for change” as he claims, then it’s no wonder that the world’s excited to have him.
As for me and the other Americans here, we’ll be staying up through the night to see the results of the election. There’s no way I could sleep through something this important.
We’re glad to see that, even when abroad, some Duke students are still interested in the election over here!
filed at 3:22 p.m.
Raindrops on voters in N.C. and Virginia, where rain has been persistent today, have made some ballots wet and has delayed the processing of ballots, CNN reports. The Chronicle’s Ryan Brown and Naureen Khan have visited two polling locations near Duke–Watts Street Elementary School and Patterson Recreation Center–and though the drizzle hasn’t shown any signs of dying down, most voters have reported a smooth process at these polls.
If you have encountered any problems with voting today, e-mail sp64@duke.edu
filed at 3:19 p.m.
Single Voter - Maya Robinson/The Chronicle
The voting precincts in the immediate vicinity of Duke’s campus saw only a slow trickle of voters this afternoon.
After the lines of the morning rush dissipated, made up of mostly those who wanted to cast their ballots before heading off to work, it has been a relatively slow day, election workers said.
Most attributed the light traffic not to the rainy weather, but rather to the massive turnout during early voting, in which 42 percent of registered voters in the state cast their ballots. More lines are expected at the end of the day, when people stop to vote after work.
The drizzle also did not deter volunteers from standing out in the rain since the polls opened at 7:30 this morning to usher voters into the sites and answer questions about the ballot.
Mikel Harris and Harold Stilley spent the morning in front of the W.I. Patterson Recreation Center, the site for West and Central Campus residents near Duke Hospital, getting slightly soaked while they discussed Obama’s prospective presidency. Both expressed some anxiety about possible election fraud and malfunctions with the voting system.
“We don’t want to get stiffed again,” said Mikel Harris, a volunteer for B.J. Lawson, speaking of the mangled election results from 2000. “History has replayed itself from time to time, but we’re going to fight ’til the end this time.”
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