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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

South Side Bethlehem Precinct at 75% Turnout at 7:15 PM

Early this evening, I visited the Litzenberger House, located in south Bethlehem at 4th & Webster. When I arrived, there were hundreds of students standing around outside, listening to guitar music. Four out of every five were wearing Obama T-shirts or pins. The line was so large that it was broken into five separate parts. Vans were stopping to drop more people off, mostly students.

When I walked inside to speak to polling officials, I was gratified to see that Voting Registrar Howie Erney was there. He told me this is Northampton County's hottest precinct, and that 2,500 of its 3,300 voters had already cast ballots. He had already brought in an extra machine, but told me "I've never seen anything like this in 28 years."

He had also called police to "cap the lines" at 8 PM.

When I looked towards the door, I could see one of Bethlehem's finest standing there. So I walked up to speak to him, and he told me that he has no authority to do that. Only a constable may do that.

While I was speaking to the officer, someone called out to me. Some Sierra Club dude was videotaping me, telling me I have no right to be in the polling place. Actually, he's wrong. The public has a right to speak to elections officials and determine how many people have voted. If that were not so, it would be much easier for elections officials to manipulate the turnout when the polls close.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousNovember 5, 2008 at 6:16 AM

    You're probably right that the public is allowed to be present at polling places, since you wouldn't be so reckless as to ignore the law, but I had read that only people in line to vote, people voting, or authorized election officials were allowed to be present inside the polling place, to avoid any undue influence. The Sierra Club dude may have been under the same impression, although why he would act like a jerk when you were only talking to a cop is, well, acting like a jerk.

    ReplyDelete

You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.