Five days and counting. But some voters aren’t waiting. They’re turning out in droves.
Barack Obama has a 19-point lead among early voters, but polls show the race is too close to call. In Florida, for instance, Obama has a two-point lead over John McCain.
Will history repeat itself? There’s already chaos at the polls, lawsuits are flying, and both parties have lawyered up. What if Obama wins the popular vote but loses the Electoral College vote?
CNN’s William Schneider recently asked:
Why isn’t there more rage over the Electoral College because it violates democratic norms?
Schneider added:
There was so much rage over Florida, people didn’t think about the Electoral College. But if it happens again, twice within 10 years, it would be intolerable to Americans.
For African Americans, it would be more than intolerable. The New York Times reports:
Wounds have not healed here in Duval County since the mangled presidential election of 2000, when more than 26,000 ballots were discarded as invalid for being improperly punched. Nearly 40 percent of the votes were thrown out in the predominantly Democratic-leaning African-American communities around Jacksonville, a reality that has caused suspicions of racial bias to linger, even though intentional disenfranchisement was never proved.
Now, in a show of early election enthusiasm, more than 84,200 people have already voted in Duval County, surpassing the number of early votes cast in the last presidential election. Added to 33,800 absentee ballots collected so far, the numbers show that 22 percent of registered voters cast their ballots as of Oct. 27, county election officials said.
But amid excitement over Mr. Obama’s historic candidacy and the chance that the country might choose an African-American president within a matter of days, there is an unmistakable sense of anxiety among blacks here that something will go wrong, that victory will slip away.
Now, in a show of early election enthusiasm, more than 84,200 people have already voted in Duval County, surpassing the number of early votes cast in the last presidential election. Added to 33,800 absentee ballots collected so far, the numbers show that 22 percent of registered voters cast their ballots as of Oct. 27, county election officials said.
But amid excitement over Mr. Obama’s historic candidacy and the chance that the country might choose an African-American president within a matter of days, there is an unmistakable sense of anxiety among blacks here that something will go wrong, that victory will slip away.
