I was at work from 5am till 8:30 pm yesterday as a poll commissioner at New Orleans' 8th ward, 16th precinct. Since Katrina, our precinct no longer votes in the neighborhood school, which has not reopened. Instead, we are one of FIFTEEN precincts sharing space in a large meeting hall on the University of New Orleans campus.

When I arrived, about an hour before the polls would open, at least 200 people were lined up waiting to vote. For the first two hours (6-8) voters were arriving in a fairly steady stream. The organizers set up signs outside, one for each precinct, so folks could queue up separately by precinct, which helped immensely; the precincts in question are not nearly equal in number of voters, so folks in the less-repopulated areas (like ours) could get in and out relatively quickly. After that first two-hour rush, only two of the fifteen precincts required the lines/queues to be maintained; voters in the other thirteen could come right in and vote pretty quickly.

There was a person from the Sectetary of State's office on duty out front, equipped with a laptop, to direct voters to the correct precinct (if they didn't already know, which most don't).

After that early rush, voters come in pretty modest numbers the rest of the day. We were all anticipating (and dreading) having to remain open for hours after official closing to take care of long lines of latecomers. (As has been noted, anyone who arrives by closing time of 8 pm can vote, not matter how long the line, no matter how long it takes.) That never materialized. We didn't even experience much of a rush after 5pm, which we all expected. Between the massive "early voting" (pre-election day) and the large numbers arriving in the early morning of election day, almost every one who was going to vote at all had done so by midday.

The results in our heavily-African-American precinct: 152 voters, 150 for Obama, 1 for McCain, 1 undervote (i.e., someone who voters for one or more other offices or propositions on the ballot, but not for President).

I've been amusing myself, trying to guess who that one McCain voter might have been. Could it have been one of our six white voters? Well, I can definitely rule out five of the six: my wife and I, our two sons, and our neighbor Jane the transsexual master carpenter. That leaves the New Orleans policeman who lives on the next block and is registered as a Democrat ~ maybe him, but probably not. We had TWO black voters registered as Republicans, and man and one woman. One of those two probably cast the single vote for McCain.

Someone mentioned above that they were surprised that no one waiting to vote was talking about the candidates or the issues. That should not have been so surprising; there are rules and regulations against "campaigning" at the polling place ~ which should be understandable, when you think about it ~ which include prohibitions against wearing buttons or even clothing (t-shirts, etc.) advocating a candidiate or an issue. These laws differ, at least sligthly, from state to state, but they are pretty universal and I think most voters are aware of them and tend to observe the spirit as well as the letter of such laws by not discussing their preferences with other voters while at the polls.

McCain won the state of Louisiana, as expected, but Obama definitely carried the city of New Orleans. Im pretty hopeful about the future right now, a feeling to which I am not particularly accustomed.