Four hour voting lines in Moody, Alabama? You have to be kidding me.
And in Eutaw, Alabama, election officials moved to larger quarters to accommodate the turnout.
As of 10:15 a.m., 168 people had voted at the site, about 100 more voters than would normally turn out for an election at that time of day, [ Sinnie Neal Richardson, chief poll inspector] said.
I’m thinking John McCain’s margin of victory here will be significantly smaller than 23%.
Jefferson County election officials report that 40% of registered voters had already cast ballots by 1 PM today.
“They are coming out really good,” said Nell Hunter, chairwoman of the Jeffferson County Board of Registrars. “I’m am still thinking we will have about 80 to 90 pecent voting today. I’d be badly fooled if we didn’t,” she said.
Wow. Just wow!
Below is my semi-live blog of the experience. Let us know how it went for you in comments!
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6:38 — I arrive at my polling place to find the parking lot nearly full. I don’t usually vote first thing, so I don’t know if this is typical. Dear Husband, who almost always votes before work, says it’s not. The white van with the Sarah! sticker is there. Yikes! I’m probably the 70th person in line.
I’m heading out to my polling place. Don’t know whether or not there will be a line. It depends on how much enthusiasm the Republicans around here can drum up to vote for McCain. I heard a poll report on MSNBC yesterday that showed 86% of Obama supporters rate him “very positive” as opposed to 56% of McCain supporters who feel that way about their candidate. Of course, I did see a bumper sticker in my little burg yesterday that read simply “Sarah!” Ugh.
I’ll report back on the experience when I’m done.
VOTE! That is all.
The New Hampshire towns traditionally announce the first election results. Obama won 17-10-2 in Hart’s Location and 15-6 in Dixville’s Notch, which hasn’t gone Democratic since 1968.
I’ll take this as a good omen.
Forecast for Central Alabama tomorrow: sunny with a high of 75°. No excuses, people!
(Preaching to the choir here, but if this helps one reader, it’s worth it.)
ETA: I found this great link, via the League of Women Voters, where you can check to make sure you’re properly registered and get the location of your polling place.
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If you aren’t already registered, DO IT! Your registration must be either hand-delivered or postmarked to your county registrar by tomorrow, October 24. Here’s a link to the voter registration form (PDF), which includes an address list for every county registrar’s office in the state.
As you prepare to vote, you can review a sample ballot for your county here. Also, check out this link at snopes.com regarding some warnings that have circulated about problems with straight ticket voting. The gist of it is this: different states have different rules that govern straight ticket voting, so study your ballot before you go into the voting booth.
And, of course, be sure you know where to vote. I don’t know about you, but I go to one location for national and state elections and another for local elections, and it can get confusing.
When you go to the polls on November 4, be sure to take proper identification. Click here to see which forms of ID are acceptable in Alabama. You may be amused to know that the list includes valid Alabama fishing and hunting licenses. 
Thanks to Blues reader Helen for the Snopes link.