Election Day: Live updates
By-the-minute news on the races important to you. Beginning 8 a.m. Tuesday, we'll have updates from the campaign trail and Lincoln-area polling places. Stay with us into the evening for breaking news and results.
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Need a lift to the polls?
The Lancaster County Democratic and Republican parties are offering free rides to the polls on Tuesday. Voters in need of a ride can call the Democrats at 402-476-2268 or email coordinator@lancastercountydemocrats.org. Or call the Republicans at 402-475-2122 or email andrew@negop.org.
Anyone interested in providing rides is welcome to help the Democrats by meeting at the party's office, 2215 C St. -
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Voting is for lovers! Get out! #LNKelectionsby wild dog coffee via twitter 11/6/2012 2:55:12 PM
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Another update from the Bennet polling place:
Bennet resident Barbara Mullenax and her 7-year-old granddaughter, Morgan, walked together to the Bennet Community Hall Legion Post 280 on Tuesday. "I brought her so she'll understand how it's important to vote," Barbara Mullenax said.
Morgan said she may have accompanied her grandmother one other time to vote. Morgan agreed that it is indeed important to vote in this election. Why?
"So the people know who they want -- Mitt Romney or Barack Obama."
-- Algis J. Laukaitis -
"Big surge" when polls opened this morning, said election inspector Diana Yearsley at Christ United Methodist Church. A line had already formed outside the door by the time the church at 45th & A opened up to voters at 8 a.m.
"It wasn't eight hours long like Florida or anything like that," Yearsley said. "Maybe six people, but typical of a presidential election."
The election inspector says voters can expect to cast ballots in about five minutes this morning. Forty-one ballots were logged by 8:45 a.m. Yearsley said highest turnouts are expected between 4 p.m. and early evening, but -- at least in her location, typically a higher-volume one -- wait times should't be an issue for voters.
"Just get out and vote." -
Sharing this from our Twitter feed -- from Kristen @K_needs_help -- @JournalStarNews For the first time, there was a line to vote at my polling place. Wonderful to see!
Want to tweet into this chat? Just use the keyword tag #LNKelections, or sign into the chat box above using your Twitter account. -
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UPDATE: Twitter follower @AlisonKnudsen sent us this additional Election Day deal -- 10% off with voting sticker at One More Time, 17th and Van Dorn.
Election Day deals/free stuff, episode 1:
Election Day isn’t just a day to exercise your Constitutional right to vote, it’s also a day to take advantage of discounts. Lots of businesses offer election-related discounts and giveaways. Here are a few that I’m aware of:
Younkers has a coupon for $20 off a $50 purchase, which works out to a 40 percent discount. You can also show them your “I voted” sticker in lieu of the coupon.
Toppers Pizza is offering $5 large pizzas and $5 Topperstix all day today. The company said that when it offered the same deal during the 2008 presidential elections, its website traffic increased 7.4 percent, and some locations in Wisconsin had to shut down because they couldn’t keep up with demand.
One of the more interesting election day offers is JetBlue’s offer to allow people to fly out of the country if their presidential candidate loses. The airline is offering 1,006 free round-trip tickets, which adds up to 2,012 seats, to people who picked the losing candidate in an online poll. Unfortunately, voting is closed, so you can’t still get in on the deal. Destinations include, Mexico, several Caribbean islands and a couple of countries in South America.
-- Matt Olberding -
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Eagle Elementary School students got a lesson in voting today. Precinct Inspector Kelly Gillaspie reported steady traffic in the lunchroom, where there were 241 ballots cast by noon and 6 provisional ballots.
“The kids are wonderful,” Gillaspie said. “They’re so well behaved. They don’t run through the election area.” -
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Farm policy lost in the campaign rhetoric
Right up to the time when Congress went home for the election, farm groups regularly aligned with either the Republicans or the Democrats were calling for passage of a farm bill.
The job is still undone, but the inattention of Congress on legislation is nothing compared to the inattention of President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney to agricultural issues in the 2012 campaign.
John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, and Steve Nelson, his counterpart with the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, are among those shaking their heads in a major farm state.
Hansen said the president could have claimed some credit for the bustling agricultural economy. “In farm country, we never made as much money in the last 60 years as we made in the last four,” he said.
But no matter how much agriculture matters in Nebraska, Nelson said, the number of voters on the front lines of crop and livestock production matters more to a presidential campaign.
“It really comes down to the fact that there are less and less farmers as a percentage of the total population,” he said, “so it’s just not seen as being as important an issue as it should.”
The combative tone of the Senate race between Deb Fischer and Bob Kerrey didn’t leave a lot of room for promoting contrasting farm policies, Hansen said.
“When you load your guns and stand in a circle and commence firing, the finer points of a lot of things get left behind.”
Wednesday will be a time to look ahead, Nelson said. “It will be interesting to see, whatever the outcome of the election, how that plays into whether Congress is able to function better than it has, or whether it continues to struggle to get anything passed.”
-- Art Hovey -
Speaking of "I Voted Today" stickers, @LJSPeterSalter found out a little more about them. #LNKElections #LNK live.journalstar.comby LJSPascale via twitter 11/6/2012 9:17:11 PM
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We can look up/double check your polling place location before you head out. Fast & easy. Just call us: 402-441-7311 #NEVoteby LancasterCoElectionC via twitter 11/6/2012 9:35:05 PM
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Words of wisdom
Vince Powers, chairman-elect of the Nebraska Democratic Party, has been engaging in spirited and sometimes rancorous political debates on Facebook with Republicans – including GOP state chairman Mark Fahleson – in the weeks leading up to the election. Today, however, Powers posted a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "I never consider a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."
-- Kevin O'Hanlon -
Working the Independents
Recent polls showed Democrat Bob Kerrey closing the gap in his race with Republican Deb Fischer for Ben Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat. Whether Kerrey pulls it off remains to be seen. But if he does not, it won’t be for lack of effort. I got two calls on the cell phone today from the Kerrey campaign -- asking me, a registered independent – for my vote.
-- Kevin O'Hanlon -
Accessible polling places
In my precinct at about 54th and South Streets, there’s never a line. And there wasn’t today at noon when I voted, as No. 91. But there was a fairly steady stream of voters -- unusual but encouraging.
I went back at 4 p.m. to see how things were going, and still no line, but busy. The precinct workers said the turnout so far was “very good” for the area. The 187th voter was signing in. More than 100 were listed as voting absentee. With 573 registered voters, that’s about a 50 percent turnout, with four hours left.
Voter No. 188 was a young woman who is quadriplegic who chose to vote on the electronic voting machine required at each precinct since the Help America Vote Act of 2002. It was good to see the machine being put to good use.
-- JoAnne Young -
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As preliminary results rolled out in a hotly contested U.S. Senate race, a confident Bob Kerrey took the stage at The Single Barrel in Lincoln on Tuesday night, telling a crowd of more than 200 "the odds favor us being able to declare victory."
Kerrey entered the restaurant and bar just before 8 p.m., just as his campaign's planned celebration at the Embassy Suites in La Vista began. Speaking over crowd applause, Kerrey yelled out "are we gonna win?" before taking the podium to thank and energize supporters.
"We didn't think this was gonna be easy," Kerrey said, with a laugh. "And we have not been disappointed."
The former governor went on to explain that he was confident about his odds.
"We will at some point be able to celebrate a great victory for the state of Nebraska this evening," he said, before the crowd broke into chants of "Kerrey, Kerrey!"
Campaign volunteers dined and watched results roll out on projectors set up throughout the hall. Stephanie Pickerel, who handled social media outreach for the Kerrey campaign, said she felt good at the candidate's odds, noting that she saw widespread support for him on Facebook today.
As to whether anticipation would build ahead of his event in La Vista, Kerrey laughed "what I'm gonna be thinking is, 'I've got one more speech then it's over.'"
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All precinct returns scanned. #NEVoteby LancasterCoElectionC via twitter 11/7/2012 4:20:32 AM
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