The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Politics & RKBA => Topic started by: tombogan03884 on January 10, 2012, 09:12:58 AM
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Earliest returns, Dixville Notch is often an indicator of how the state will go.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120110/NEWS0605/701109957&source=RSS
DIXVILLE — Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman each took two votes as the first ballots were cast in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul each took one vote and President Barack Obama had three votes.
This year, four voters were undeclared, three were registered Republicans and two Democrats.
Jacques Couture, 62, won the lottery to be the first voter to cast his ballot during the midnight vote at The Balsams hotel. Shortly after the 11 p.m. lottery, Couture said he had still not decided for whom he would vote.
The tiny ballot room, which had nine booths sectioned off by red, white and blue bunting, was overheated from the lights from camera crews from around the country.
About five minutes before midnight, the nine voters marked their ballot and then waited while Tom Tillotson consulted his wrist watch until the stroke of midnight, when Couture slipped his ballot into the box.
This is where, since 1960, the first votes in the state's presidential primary have been cast at midnight. Although the hotel has closed, nine people still call Dixville home.
“We had about nine voters back in 1960,” said Town Clerk Rick Erwin. “It may have gone under seven at one point, but it's always dependent on what's going on at the hotel.”
The Balsams was recently sold and the new owners are planning an extensive renovation. More than a month ago, optimistic employees decorated for Christmas, hoping the hotel would reopen for the holidays, as it traditionally does.
“We were ready to roll,” said Ray Gorman of neighboring Colebrook, who has worked at the hotel for 33 years. “We thought if it opened before the holiday, we'd be ready.”
Gorman volunteered to be at The Balsams Monday night, helping out news crews with everything from cables to historic information. The bonus was seeing friends.
"There's something special about election night," he said. “I know all nine voters and it will be good to see them — you get used to seeing these people when you work 50-plus hours a week.”
As is another tradition, the news corps outnumbered the registered voters and, as in past years, coffee and refreshments were available, laid out as if there was a full house. Donna Kay Erwin made sure the hotel's logo was arranged the same way on each cup and saucer.
That's just the way it's done, Gorman said.
“That's Dixville,” he said.
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I went back to about 1960 and Dixville Notch only gets it right about 50% of the time in the General!
Still neat to be first though!
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I know that the studies have been done and it has been proven that polling and predictions influence voters as they go to the polls.
#1. Why doesn't someone that believes in our Right to chose our leaders scream from the hill tops that these public predictions must be stopped;
#2. Why doesn't any media source discuss this with the public - Besides the fact that they don't want anyone to know how their playing for the ratings in the name of the First Amendment actually ruins our democratic process.
People want to support a winner, and I remember reading and participating in studies in college that showed how people can be swayed in their choices by telling them what or who others chose. Selectively report on a candidates activities, selectively poll voters as they exit, and selectively poll prospective voters, and you will help mold the votes cast.
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I know that the studies have been done and it has been proven that polling and predictions influence voters as they go to the polls.
#1. Why doesn't someone that believes in our Right to chose our leaders scream from the hill tops that these public predictions must be stopped;
#2. Why doesn't any media source discuss this with the public - Besides the fact that they don't want anyone to know how their playing for the ratings in the name of the First Amendment actually ruins our democratic process.
People want to support a winner, and I remember reading and participating in studies in college that showed how people can be swayed in their choices by telling them what or who others chose. Selectively report on a candidates activities, selectively poll voters as they exit, and selectively poll prospective voters, and you will help mold the votes cast.
I believe they have but the overwhelming need to be the "first or exclusive" is too much for the networks to overcome!
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I believe they have but the overwhelming need to be the "first or exclusive" is too much for the networks to overcome!
I refer you to comment #2 about ratings being more important than our Right to fairly choose >:(
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I thought that the networks had decided a decade ago to not publish or report the win/loss of states in the General until the polls had closed on the west coast but that never came to fruition. Imagine waiting till 11:00 pm on the east coast?
The Horror!
::)
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My honesty cost me a golden "Democrat" moment today.
When I got my ballot 2 stuck together.
If I was a liberal I would have submitted both, but since I'm a racist red neck dinosaur that "just doesn't get it" I handed it back.
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Well, if Newt loses by one vote, you know who to blame. ;D
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My honesty cost me a golden "Democrat" moment today.
When I got my ballot 2 stuck together.
If I was a liberal I would have submitted both, but since I'm a racist red neck dinosaur that "just doesn't get it" I handed it back.
Reminds me of when I worked in a store that sold lottery. A gentleman bought a scratch ticket. He scratched it in the store. He handed it back to me and said "I think I just won $50." I, being the honest idiot I am, checked it and said "No, you just won $500." Sucks to be like that sometimes.
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At least one network decided to not broadcast the election winner after complaints that voters on the west coast didn't vote because the national media declared a winner in long before the polls closed out there. Of course, no one west of the Rockies can figure out who the winner is from the results from the other states, can they?
Pecos
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Reminds me of when I worked in a store that sold lottery. A gentleman bought a scratch ticket. He scratched it in the store. He handed it back to me and said "I think I just won $50." I, being the honest idiot I am, checked it and said "No, you just won $500." Sucks to be like that sometimes.
No it doesn't!
;)
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I was quizzed on an exit poll during the 2008 election in a rather liberal little town I lived in here in MA.
My answer..."none of your damn business! Good day sir!"
I think people enjoy these polls and don't hesitate to answer the question.
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I was quizzed on an exit poll during the 2008 election in a rather liberal little town I lived in here in MA.
My answer..."none of your damn business! Good day sir!"
I think people enjoy these polls and don't hesitate to answer the question.
It makes them feel important, when in fact the people who actually know what dumb asses they are don't give a crap what they think.
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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mitt-romney-wins-hampshire-010032232.html
MANCHESTER, N.H.--Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, the second state in a row he has carried in his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Romney is the first Republican, not including incumbent presidents, to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary since Iowa Republicans began holding their first-in-the-nation caucuses in 1976.
Ron Paul came in second; Jon Huntsman in third.
It was a start-to-finish victory for Romney in New Hampshire, who led in the polls here throughout the 2012 campaign. Romney owns a summer home in the state, which borders his home state of Massachusetts, where he served as governor from 2003 to 2007.
From here, the candidates go on to South Carolina, the first primary in the South. There, Romney's electoral dominance will not be a such a foregone conclusion. South Carolina is more conservative than New Hampshire, which will give Rick Perry--who campaigned in South Carolina while voters in New Hampshire went to the polls--and Rick Santorum a possible edge. For both of them, the Jan. 21 primary will be a crucial test of the lasting power of their campaigns. Pressure will be high for Newt Gingrich as well, in part because South Carolina borders Georgia, his home state. He did not perform well in the first two primary contests, and his ambitions could be crippled if he fails to garner many votes in South Carolina.
In addition to a more conservative electorate, South Carolina Republicans have developed a reputation for hosting rough-and-tumble presidential primaries. When Mitt Romney arrives there tomorrow, he will face a $3.5 million negative television advertising assault from the pro-Gingrich "Winning Our Future" super PAC. The first substantial and sustained attack against Romney, it will target his tenure at Bain Capital, the venture capital firm he helped found.