More eligible voters cast ballots in this past November’s election than in the last 40 years. Turnout, as it turns out, among those eligible to vote was high. According to a report in Monday’s Washington post 61.6% of eligible voters cast ballots.

Final figures from nearly every state and the District of Columbia showed that more than 131 million people voted. A little more than 122 million voted in the 2004 presidential election.
This year's total amounts to 61.6 percent of eligible voters, the highest turnout rate since 1968, when Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, said Michael P. McDonald, a political science professor at [George Mason University].

You can review McDonald’s work here

My limited subtraction skills suggest that 38.4% of eligible voters didn’t. Since, as Woody Allen has explained, 90% of life is just showing up, the views of the non-voters went unrecorded. However, had they intended to vote “none of the above” we’d be commander-in-chiefless. Did the non voters intend to oppose both candidates? I asked Professor McDonald who he thought they were.

Democrats rubbed out another five republican Congressmen in the Northeast yesterday, including three in New York, one in New Jersey, and, in a historic victory, finally ending the tenure of New England's last remaining Member of the House, Chris Shays.

In NY-29, Eric Massa succeeded in his second attempt to knock off incumbent Shotgun Randy Kuhl. In NY-13, City Councilman Michael McMahon took Vito "More families, more values" Fossella's formerly safe seat with over 60% of the vote. In NY-25, Dan Maffei will replace retiring republican James Walsh.

So that's that. Republicans just stopped being a national party. Too bad for them.

President Obama.

And I did it under the Working Families Party banner.

I was pushed over the edge after Democrats in the City Council betrayed us with their vote to extend term limits. It's why am voting under the WFP banner. I want real progressive in the NYC government, not weasels that can be bought easily with a little grease palming. Am ready to take them down and kick them out --and that includes you Christine Quinn.

It's on motherfuckers. 

Self and better half just got back from casting our ballots (or, more accurately, pulling the god-damned levers). We waited in line for about twenty minutes; turnout seems to be high.

When you're done voting, get on the phone and make calls into swing states.

If you don't know where your polling place is, check out this web site.

If you have a problem voting, please go here. Remember: if you're a registered voter and show up at your polling place, they have to let you cast a ballot.

If you run into problems at a polling place in New York, please go here.

And of course, you should vote for Obama on the WFP's Row E. I just did, and it felt really good. Make your voice heard for Progressive change.

Today's the day we've all been waiting for, folks. Make it happen.

The Siena Research Institute just released its final pre-election polling (.pdf) in several key races.

In SD-3, Brian Foley leads Caesar Trunzo 56% to 34%, a lead of twenty-two points in a district evenly divided, at 45% each, between Obama and McCain. That's extraordinary, and a testament to the strong campaign Foley has been running.

In Erie County's SD-58, Democrat Bill Stachowski reversed a poll deficit and now leads his corrupt opponent, Dennis Delano, by four points, 47% to 43%. Being under 50% is generally taken to signal some danger to incumbents, but the trend is going well for him.

In SD-61, republican Ranzenhffer leads Democrat Joe Mesi by five points, 47% to 42%. reversing an earlier Mesi lead. However, in a Democratic year, with our huge GOTV advantages, that deficit can be made up.

In SD-48, Senator Darrel Aubertine is crushing some guy, 49% to 38%. Another half million dollars down the drain for our friends at the SRCC.

IN SD-15, Joe Addabbo narrowly leads incumbent wingnut Serf Maltese by two points, 45% to 43%. This bears repeating: an incumbent legislator who's polling that far below 50% two days before the election needs to start thinking about other employment.

The most disappointing result is that from the Hannon-McElroy race. Kristen McElroy has all the makings of a Jeffersonian citizen-lawmaker; she's a mother of three, a practicing attorney, and just an all-around awesome person. Kemp Hannon is, in a caucus filled with nasty sons-of-bitches, one of the worst. And yet, he leads McElroy 56% to 30%. But don't treat this result as indicative of Hannon's strength; McElroy's combined 23% favorable/unfavorable numbers indicate that she's just not all that well-known in the district.

And there you have it. If these numbers hold, Democrats will win the Senate on Tuesday.

Doug Forand is the chief strategist of the New York Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, DSCC.

Q: Doug, good morning. Three days out, what’s your take on the state of the race? Do you see any surprises on Election Day?

A: Good morning. Right now, the races are tightening as the undecided voters start to break and we feel very good about how that’s going to shake out. There’s strong sentiment out there that the GOP has simply failed voters on every level - federal, state and local – and people want change. The early argument that the Senate Republicans were making – that McCain would drag them across the finish line – has evaporated in the face of Bush’s economic collapse and the high-tax, low-job-creation environment fostered by the Senate Republicans.

Q: We on the blogs have been writing for years about the importance of taking the Senate for any number of reasons. What are, speaking for yourself, the top three issues that will be positively affected by a takeover?

A: I graduated from college during the Bush 41 recession and I know what a tough job market that was. Upstate New York never fully recovered during the subsequent economic expansion. People graduating now face even dimmer prospects, so the first thing that will change will be a real focus on meaningful job creation. Current policies have resulted in billions of dollars worth of tax breaks going to politically well-connected businesses rather than businesses that actually create jobs.

Second, decades of unfunded mandates and irresponsible spending have created an unsustainable tax system. We need to ease the tax burden on middle class and working families, and again, on those businesses which actually expand the job base.

Finally, we’ll see a change in the culture in Albany. The idea that you can have responsive government when (in the Senate) certain votes aren’t even recorded for fear of voters finding out is ludicrous. We need a Senate in which ideas can be discussed and debated in full view of the taxpayers. We need to recognize that no party has a monopoly on ideas – if there’s a good way to create jobs or lower taxes, whether it comes from a Democrat or a Republican, it should be heard. . Democracy works best when dissent is encouraged. It’s the process of hearing different viewpoints and considering different perspectives that leads to the best decisions being made.

Q: Republicans have been playing their usual upstate/downstate card against Democrats this year, but so far apparently without much success. We already saw, with the Aubertine race, that this attack has been somewhat blunted. Why do you think that’s the case?

A: Because the voters are smarter than the Republicans assume. All you have to do is look around upstate New York to see the abject failures of Republican policies. Job loss, high taxes, high crime rates – on all of the issues that were the once core of the GOP’s argument as to why they should stay in power, the Republicans have failed. And rather than come up with new ideas, they just yell “downstate” as loud as they can and hope that it works.

Above all, as we’ve also seen on the national level, voters know that the politics of divisiveness do not get things done. They may try to argue upstate versus downstate, blue state versus red state, my state versus your state, but as a former State Senator I very much admire once said, “We are the United States of America”. Similarly, we are One New York. When the upstate economy is failing, when families on Long Island can’t afford their property taxes, when a family in Queens has to choose between rent and paying for health care – these are problems that the entire state must deal with. Voters get that, but the Senate Republicans don’t.

Q: Any final appeals to our readers? What should people do to wake up in a blue state on Wednesday?

A: Make sure that you and everyone you know votes, and votes the entire ticket. There’s going to be a lot of excitement for Barack Obama, but we need vote for change in Washington and vote for change in Albany. In past presidential years, we’ve seen falloff (the percentage of people who vote for President but don’t vote at all for State Senate) as high as 25% in some districts. People need to vote for every position.

If you have any time at all, get out there and volunteer for a campaign. Some of our races have gotten a lot of press, some have gotten less. But every campaign can use some help.

For people who wonder whether their volunteering really makes a difference, just remember Andrea Stewart-Cousins in 2004. She lost by 18 votes. That means if just 10 people had voted differently than they did, she would have won. If 19 people who voted for Kerry but did not vote for State Senate had voted for her, she would have won. Any good volunteer who commits one day to a campaign can swing that many voters, and those votes could be the difference between a Democratic and Republican Senate come Wednesday.

Thank you, Doug. Let's go out and win this thing.

Interview conducted by the New York blogs.

Q: Can you explain to us what the state director does?

The State Director is the quarterback of the campaign in NY. I help coordinate the political, field, communications and logistics of the campaign. I am also the all-around trouble shooter. As problems arise, I can direct certain parts of the team to address matters. The State Director assists with fundraising, is a spokesperson for the campaign… and reaches out to Elected Officials and other important constituencies.

Q: What are your top goals?

We want to have a historic victory for Senator Obama in NY. We want to contribute to the swing-states – where this race will be won or lost. We want to make sure that people realize that Senator Obama’s message of change is transmitted all across the State.

Q: Do you see a down-ballot effect from Obama’s overwhelming popularity in this state?

Yes, we know that many first-time voters will be coming out to the polls. We anticipate record turnout. This should have a coattail effect on close elections farther down the ballot.

Q: What can people who don’t want to or can’t travel to a swing state do here in New York?

For the first time, all the Get-Out-The-Vote phonecalls in battleground states will be made by volunteers. There are no paid phonebanks in the Obama campaign. Therefore, big states like California, Texas, Illinois and New York are responsible for turning out voters in states like Florida, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina – to name a few.

In New York, we need to make nearly 3 million phonecalls in the final four days of this campaign. This means that volunteers in New York who are unable to travel to a swing state can have an impact like never before.

We have large phonebank locations set up all over the state. Check out our website at: http://ny.barackobama.com/nylastcall to find a location near you!

Q: Some final words for your volunteers?

This is it people... this is when the Presidential race will be decided. With many battleground states too close to call… this race will be won by whichever side gets more of its voters to the polls.

Every Barack Obama supporter in NY needs to dig deep and commit as much time as possible to calling battleground state voters and get them to the polls.

We need you to join us. Barack Obama needs your help to win.
Please commit a day or two (or four)… and spread the word to ALL your friends. Reach out to all your networks; family, friends, Facebook, alumni groups – we need you to reach EVERYONE!

Thank you for your time, Dave. Now let's go out and win this thing.

Due to the sheer volume of new registrations, the New York State Board of Elections and several of the county boards have had to deal with a substantial backlog of registrations. The good folks at Rock the Vote have been talking to them, and here's what they say.

This week we've been working hard to understand what's going on in New York State and why some of your friends and neighbors weren't appearing on the voter registration rolls. Due to lots of new registrants many counties and New York City boroughs did not finish data entering voter forms until late last week.

After talking with election officials and lawyers in New York I am optimistic that everyone who filled out, downloaded, signed and mailed a form by the October 10th registration deadline will be eligible to vote--no matter where you sent it (State or County office).

One thing we have learned is that the state voter registration database takes several days to update so many voters who are on the rolls were wrongly told that they had not registered.

If you sent in a registration but were told you are NOT on the rolls, we encourage you to call this number set up by our legal partners: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683). Tell them your name and that you're from New York. They will check the latest database of New York registrations to help you find your polling place. If your name still does not appear on the rolls, they'll let you know how you can cast a ballot on election day.

We are only a couple days away from a history-making election. Have a great weekend and on Tuesday, Rock the Vote.

If you registered before the legal deadline, October 10th, you're entitled to vote in the State of New York. Nonetheless, if you have any doubts whether your new registration took hold, please call the number above or go to the Board of Elections web site.

And on Tuesday, let's go out and win this thing.