Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Scenes from election day

Scenes from Election Day: America heads to the polls

By | The Ticket – 21 hrs ago
A polling station in Los Angeles, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The most expensive presidential race in American history—some $2.6 billion was spent—is finally coming to an end. The barrage of political ads is quieting, and voters now have the chance to speak.
Polls close in Virginia, Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vermont at 7 p.m. ET, with other states following close behind. Alaska's polling stations, the last to close, finally shutter at 1 a.m. on Wednesday. In the meantime, we'll be gathering all the latest news about the candidates, polling stations and swing states, here.
6:01 PM: Follow all of the election results live at the Yahoo! News Control Room site.
4:57 PM A number of voters have shown up to polling stations dressed as Big Bird from PBS's "Sesame Street."
4:14 PM: The youth vote was instrumental in Barack Obama's 2008 victory, but this may be taking things too far. Twitter user Jon Henke posts a picture of "Documented voter fraud!"Big Bird has a vested interest in getting out to vote this year. (Twitter)
3:45 PM: A Michigan voter whose heart stopped at the polls was revived by nurse Ty Houston, who says the man's first words upon regaining consciousness were, "Did I vote?"
3:01 PM: If you thought it was a hassle for you to vote today, we'd like you to meet Galicia Malone. The 21-year-old first-time voter from Illinois managed to cast her ballot today even though she was in labor.
2:50 PM: Check out this series of photos of voters in Queens, who took a break from trying to salvage their Sandy-hit homes to vote in makeshift voting stations today.
2:40 PM: Guess they're not too nervous for a big lunch. Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney grabbed lunch at a Wendy's in a Cleveland suburb after stopping by a campaign office. Here's a photo of them greeting the staff. Joe Biden, meanwhile, grabbed lunch at a local restaurant in Sterling, Virginia, where he had a Cobb salad.
2:38 PM: For the third day in a row, Joe Biden and Mitt Romney's planes passed each other on the tarmac. This time, in Cleveland.
2:30 PM: A judge has ordered officials to cover up the Obama mural in a Philadelphia polling place that raised controversy earlier today.
1:45 PM: NBC has confirmed that an electronic voting machine in Pennsylvania changed a vote from Obama to Romney earlier today. The machine has been taken out of service.
1:20 PM: An estimated 50 million eligible Americans will not vote today. Here's why.
1:00 PM: Better late than never? Google searches for "who's running for president" spiked in November.
12:25 PM: You might want to think twice before posting your filled-out ballot to Facebook, Flickr, or Instagram. Propublica reports that some states have laws that prohibit people from showing their ballots to anyone. Violating the rule can result in having your ballot thrown out. See if it's legal in your state at the Citizen Media Law Project site.
12:18 PM: In Washington D.C., there are reports that some lines are so long at polling sites that people are giving up on voting. How was your polling place? Let us know in the comments.
12 PM: Republican National Committee official Tim Miller is complaining on Twitter that a Philadelphia polling place has put up voting booths right next to a mural of Obama. The location of the polling site is 35th ward-D18 Franklin School, according to the Weekly Standard. Miller wrote that the Pennsylvania GOP has filed a complaint. Electioneering is not allowed within 10 feet of a polling place. The Philadelphia City Commissioners' office is looking into the complaints.
Obama mural in Philadelphia (Tim Miller)
11:40 AM: Elections officials in Pinellas County in Florida mistakenly sent hundreds of robocalls telling voters they had until 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday to vote, the Tampa Bay Times reports. (The last polls in the state close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.) Elections officials sent a second message to alert voters who received the calls of the mistake. A majority of the county voted Democratic in 2008.
11 AM: A Chrysler official wrote on Twitter that the car company has given its entire workforce the day off to vote. (He added that the auto workers union and Chrysler, GM and Ford have agreed for years that workers get the day off to vote.) Late last month the company had strongly denied the accuracy of an ad from Mitt Romney's campaign stating that the automaker was moving its Jeep production to China. The company, in fact, said it recently added 1,100 jobs in the swing state of Ohio, where one in eight jobs is connected to the auto industry.
10 AM: All four major candidates have cast their ballots. President Barack Obama voted weeks ago in Chicago as part of his campaign's push to get the supporters to vote early in states that allow it. Voting on Tuesday: Vice President Joe Biden, at a Wilmington, Del., high school; Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, near their Belmont, Mass., home; and Paul Ryan cast his ballot in his hometown of Janesville, Wis.
9:40 AM: The first election results are in—and it's a tie. In New Hampshire, Dixville Notch's 10 registered votes split evenly 5-5 between Romney and Obama. The small village has cast its ballots at midnight since 1960, giving political junkies an early look at how candidates are faring in the Granite State. President Obama carried the small village in 2008, but Dixville Notch went to George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004.
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