And from our stringer out in Iowa...

Early voting in Iowa.

Remember SM’s aunt out in Iowa who gave us the “on the ground” report from the Democratic caucus?

Well, she’s back. This time with updates from the early voting out there.

Reporting from Iowa, SM’s aunt:

October 21
I started working yesterday at the early voting place at our branch library.  You can not believe how many people came out to vote early.  It was fantastic!  I worked for 7 hours and the people were constant and at times lined up waiting.  I worked on the November election last time and I bet we didn't have as many people as we had yesterday - or maybe it would be a close tie.  I also worked the two weeks before last election and we had at the most 30 people on our best day.  I'll find out today, but I bet we had 300 or more people yesterday.  We have 5 more days this week and 6 days next week for early voting.  I wonder how many people we will get all together.  And this is only one of the early voting places in this area.

Then there will be November 4th when I work the poll.  That will be a long day because we start at 7 am to 9 pm and longer because we have to be there early and stay late

Anyway, no matter who you vote for, it is an exciting time and I'm just giving an update of this area.

And this just in...

October 24
I was wrong in my estimated number of early voters on Monday. Our total numbers at the location that I'm working are:

Monday -- 445
Tuesday -- over 400 - I'm not sure how many he said
Wednesday -- 315 (the day they asked me to be chair since the other person quit - must have been overloaded)
Thursday -- 295

This is just one of the many locations to vote early in [XYZ] County Iowa.

They are predicting that today and Saturday will have higher numbers. Then we have a day off on Sunday and then back to work for six days. Then I'll have Sunday and Monday off and then the actual election day! I'm getting in lots of practice so it should be fun.

The Auditor told me on Wednesday (before the 315 people came) that early voters in [XYZ] County already exceeded the total number who voted on the 2004 presidential election. In 2004 we did have an incumbent president running and this time we have two new people. Well, actually, I counted about seven (7) names of people running for president listed on the ballet. I never even heard of some of them. Besides the 2 main people, I had only heard of Nader - the others were completely unknown to me.

Interesting stuff. Well, at least to me it is.