If you need a ride to the polls, PLEASE call Democratic Headquarters at 203.778.3661. REMEMBER, if doesn't matter what political party you favor, just call and they'll come to your residence and bring you to the polls.
10:46: WELCOME TO HatCityBLOG's live coverage of Election 2007.
If you have any voting stories, please email them to hatcityblog@yahoo.com and we'll post it for everyone to read. Make sure to tell us which ward your reporting from.
Throughout the day, I'll post some of my best video clips from following the Boughton administration for the last two years. I made it a point to keep a close eye on things from the day Boughton beat 2005 Democratic candidate Dean Esposito and I think I'll find my videos interesting.
This thread will read from top to bottom which means in order to read the most updated post, you'll have to scroll down the screen.
As I promised, I'm going to BLAST Mayor Boughton once and for all over his last ditch attempt to use illegal immigration for political purposes in his shameless robo phone call Sunday night but that's for later. For now, here's a small list of feedback from readers who already voted:
1st WARD Rain notwithstanding, an unusually large group (primarily seniors) at DHS (approximately 9:30am). Seniors did not seem to be having any trouble with the new ballots. BTW if it's a test of IQs, the Dems outside had the good sense to be standing under a tent.4th Ward?3rd WARD I think the new voting system was confusing. I voted, and screwed up the ballot the first time around. The vote for any 7, vote for any 9 thing, was what was confusing. But, I voted democrat, all the way.
I knew from day one that the new machines would be somewhat confusing because it's very easy to over-vote. Please read my post below and watch the videos on how to use the new optical scan machines.
10:55: One of the things that drives me nuts about Mayor Boughton is his uncanny ability to mislead the public at a drop of a dime. One of the reasons I started this blog was because there would be occasions when I heard the mayor say or make a comment about something that I knew was misleading. Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about...back in May, Mayor Boughton was a guest on Ideas at Work and Beyond and in his interview with a smart Elizabeth Putnam (then reporter for the News-Times), the mayor uttered a laundry list of lies and misleading statements.
Back in May, I promised to take each one of the mayor's misleading statements and show how he routinely misleads the public. Well, I wasn't the only person keeping track of the Boughton's comments...in fact, the person Boughton mislead became so upset with the state of Danbury that he decided to run for office.
Here, for the first time, is 2nd Ward Common Council candidate Ken Gucker exposing one of Mayor Boughton's misleading statements about the BRT/Crosby project and the subject of contamination.
...if only the press did factchecking like this.
11:30: If you already voted, send us your report. Email us at hatcityblog@yahoo.com and when you do, make sure to tell us which ward you're reporting from.
I'm about to head out and hit all the wards now for my afternoon report. Be back soon.
1:50 P.M.: Okay...just got back from touring the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd wards. I'm processing the video now and I'll have photos up in a second. While you wait, here's another field report.
1st Ward: I voted at 8:00 this morning. Very light turn out. I was in and out in less than five minutes. The new system is very easy…just scribble in all the Democrat dots, turn it over, do it again...feed the little copy machine and poof! We’re in!!!
Got my “I Voted “ sticker too!
Helena and the gang were there keeping dry. Saw a couple or Republicans running for council...don’t remember their names...J they were standing in the “mud”.
Go COTTER GO!!!
2:20 P.M.: Notice all the lovely ILLEGAL campaign lawn signs on public property! So annoying...
NOTE: As usual, of the three wards I visited thus far, the third ward had the highest turnout thus far. Parking lot was packed (12:00 PM). Second ward was light but steady (12:30) and the second had a decent turnout (1:00 P.M.) For the most part, the rain probably had an impact on the turnout but the sun came out around 12:00 so things should pick up (and remember, most people are still at work right now).
3:00 P.M.: Just talked to a few sources and the second ward had a MASSIVE turnout from 6 A.M. to about 11:30 P.M. It seems like I missed the surge by about 30 minutes. We might have a new Common Council member in Ken Gucker.
I'll post my pictures and video from wards 1, 2, and 3 soon.
3:20 P.M.: CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT: Brian Cotter
The last interview I conducted before election day was with Brian Cotter, candidate for treasurer. We talked about his campaign, his feelings about Election Day, and his vision for Danbury if elected.
Here's my report:
3:30 P.M. Here's a tip for those who plan to email me reports. When you vote and you place your ballot in the machine, take a look at the digital counter. IT should read TOT=XXXX. When I voted this morning (11:15 A.M.), the counter was at 1030. This should give you some type of idea of the turnout and the real political junkies (those who really track this type of stuff) should be able to analyze the turnout compared to previous years.
I've talked to more people in the 2nd Ward and it's basically confirmed that they had a really impressive turnout this morning. Things were light but steady when I arrived there (12:30) but I think this is a ward to keep an eye on. I'll try and get in touch with someone from the 2nd who wants to do an interview. Since it's stopped raining, expect the turnout to increase as the day goes on. Email your election report at hatcityblog@yahoo.com. Make sure to indicate which ward your reporting from and if possible, give us a report on the total amount of votes casted (you'll see it when you place your ballot in the collection machine).
3:50 P.M.: Here's WLAD noon report.
WLAD news at noon.
5:20 P.M.: I was hoping to get these videos process faster but I'm running out of disk space. I'll still do my rebuttal to Mayor Boughton's insane robo call from Sunday as well as give a parting shot at racist email author Joel Urice regarding his anti-immigrant/Democratic smear he made last Friday. I can only hope the people of Danbury act as smart as they did in 2005 and not vote an idiot like Urice to ANY elected position in OUR fine city (DOUBLE GOES TO HIS EMAILING BUDDY PAULINE BASSO).
Here's another report from the field. Remember, after you vote, share your experience at emailing us at hatcityblog@yahoo.com. Don't forget to tell us your ward and the count on the voting machine when you cast your ballot.
7th WARD: I voted in the 7th ward around 2:30PM today. The parking lot was very full. While checking in, it appeared that almost everyone on my street had voted already. I had to wait about a minute to get into the private area to vote. I believe the vote count was around 1200. Stready stream of people going in on my way out.
5:50 P.M.: VIDEO REPORT:
Okay, it seems like I have things in order now...here's my video report from wards 1, 2, and 3. I didn't do any interviews since it just finished raining and the conditions weren't the best for conducting interviews.
Hope you like the video...
6:15 P.M.: Hello to those who just arrived at the site. The traffic here has spiked to 100-110 visits per hour with aprox. 800-900 people checking out the site so far today. If you voted already, please email hatcityblog@yahoo.com and tell us how everything went. Make sure to provide which ward you voted in as well as the couunt on the collection machine when it collected your ballot.
That's to those who complemented me on the site during my walk around the polling places. It's really funny to see Republicans say "I love your site BUT..." It's even funnier when several of them came up to me and laughed at something I wrote about one of their colleagues (the Jean Natale/skinhead photo always gets a laugh as well as the Gregg Seabury State Rep./Common Council post).
I'm putting the finishing touches on my post for Mark Boughton as well as my slap in the face post for racist email author Joel Urice. Off to wards 4, 5, 6, and 7. Be back soon.
7:50 P.M.:
10:15: Back to typing...had to find a Wifi. I went down to Comcast to hand in some results to the Election 2007 local access crew.
From what I have, the race for At Large is up in the air. I hear that the GOP is claiming that Basso won but from the numbers I saw, she's on life-support. Warren Levy is in striking distance and he was cross-endorsed. We don't know about the absentee ballots so it's really hard to call the At-Large race right now.
What's most disappointing is the low-turnout. Whoever you vote for, it's SO important to come out and vote but I won't know the official numbers until late tonight-early tomorrow.
It seems like nothing has changed in the ward races with all the candidates getting re-elected. Again, the real thing to watch is the at-large race and as of now, although the GOP is claiming that Basso won her spot, I haven't heard anything and the News-Times is not calling it yet for the above reasons I mentioned.
Whoa, did a Democrat win in Brookfield?!? By 8 votes?!?!?
I brought down the live stream and posted the re-broadcast of the footage from Democratic Headquarters. I'm going to see if I can find more numbers from the At-Large race.
10:30: From what I gathered, it's REALLY close between Warren Levy and Pauline Basso. REAL close. I think their might need to be a recount and again, there is the absentee ballots to consider.
IT'S REAL CLOSE FOLKS.
10:40: There is still a great deal of traffic here. Fir the first time ever, HatCityBLOG has crossed the 1,000 hits mark in one day! Thanks to all who visited the site.
I'm working like hell to get more info on the Pauline Basso/Warren Levy race as well as the other races such as Zoning (Joel Urice) and the B.O.E. I'll check back as soon as possible.
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of day laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
