GOTV

Well, it's crunch time. It's all about get out the vote now.

But before we look to the final days, here's some pretty inspiring local stats. Granted, San Mateo County is predominantly Democratic to begin with. The county also usually has a better than the national average voter turnout, but still, there's optimisim in the numbers:

* 6,674 new registration forms submitted in the final day (Oct 18) alone. Procrastination rules!
* Nearly 27,000 new registrants total, since the March primary.

Of those:
* 10,682 Dem's
* 6,677 Rep's
* 8,692 Declined to States (Independents)
* 21.3% of new voters are between 18-21
* 111,000 permanent absentee ballot requests on file, or about 1/3 the total voting population.

That's about 9% brand new registrants, countywide. Or, ~6.5% new voters whom I'll bet will be voting for Kerry. If that ratio holds throughout the country, it would be more than enough to turn this into a rout. But I'm told there are some parts of the country that are less liberal than San Mateo County.

And in some of those areas, there is already disturbing news. Try to vote in the late morning, or early afternoon. The lines will be shorter and if such organized voter challengers are out in force, it will slow down the process. And if you can volunteer to help GOTV, do it!