ELECTION DAY BLOG: REPUBLICANS COULD CHALLENGE BALLOTS IN RACINE

By Journal Times staff

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 9:16 PM CST

SLIDESHOW: Election Day 2008
VIDEO: Racine County Clerk Joan Rennert talks about election concerns

9:15 p.m. - Obama headquarters begins celebration at Buckets Pub

RACINE — Obama headquarters is having their celebratory party at Buckets Pub. TVs throughout the room are showing election results, and each time a favorable report for Obama comes in, the crowd erupts into cheers and clapping.

“We’re excited,” said Jim Brygter, “I’m guardedly hopeful.” Brygter is from the northern part of the state but traveled here to celebrate with friend and fellow Obama supporter Terry Lynch, a campaign volunteer for Obama here.

He said has been canvassing neighborhoods in the weeks before the election. “It’s great,” Lynch said amidst the excitement of the party.

Lynch was also an observer at the Humble Park poll today.

“It was exciting to see how many people voted,” he said. “The early returns are great.” He said he believes about 80 percent of the registered voters for the Humble Park area voted today, according to a lawyer at the poll.

Tuesday 8:22 p.m. - Democratics gather at Buckets in Racine

RACINE — Local democratics are gathering at Buckets Pub in Racine to celebrate Election night. It was previously incorrectly reported that the party was headed to the Labor Center.

Republicans are gathering at Spokes in Yorkville.

Tuesday 7:45 p.m. - Republicans will wait to make decision on challenging ballots

RACINE — State Republican Party leaders say they wait until Wednesday morning to determine whether they’ll challenge hundreds, maybe thousands of ballots cast in Racine on Tuesday.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said he and other party leaders haven’t had a chance to determine whether the party will challenge ballots cast in polling places where campaign workers for Sen. Barack Obama helped register voters.

“We need to look at the situation and determine how many ballots we’re talking about, Priebus said. “We’re not going to make a decision tonight.”

That number will play a role in challenging the ballots, Priebus said.

A volunteer attorney working for the Republican Party of Racine County said earlier Tuesday that the number of ballots could be in the hundreds, maybe thousands.

Priebus said it took some time, but city election officials fixed the situation after the state’s Government Accountability Board intervened.

“People can go and observe the election process at the polling place, but people cannot participate in the election process,” Priebus said. “Now it’s a matter of trying to figure out how extensive that problem really was.”

Tuesday 6:17 p.m. - Republicans fielding complaints from around the state

RACINE — Republican Party officials said Tuesday that they are responding to complaints from around the state about inappropriate activities at polling places.

Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said party officials have received calls about a number of incidents similar to the situation in Racine, where Democratic election observers were told to stop assisting people to register to vote.

“The general rule of thumb today has been overeager election observers,” Kukowski said. “There are things all over the state.”

Kukowski said state party officials hadn’t heard about the situation in Racine until they were contacted by The Journal Times.

State Republicans are getting calls into the party’s fraud hotline about election observers who are taking more control and authority at polling places, Kukowski said.

“The name election observer is what it means, they’re only there to observe,” she said.

Party officials are taking each complaint on a case-by-case basis, Kukowski said.

“That’s why we have a central hotline where our attorneys can sift through it. Is it really an issue or is it something we have to move on from,” Kukowski said.

Tuesday 5:58 p.m. - Long night ahead for poll workers

At Tyler-Domer Community Center in Racine, at 4:45 p.m. about half of the absentee ballots remained to be fed into vote-counting machines.

That meant that election workers were facing another busy part of the day and still had many of the absentee ballots to deal with. Nancy Nelson, chief election official for Ward 7, said it’s likely that at least some of those ballots will have to be fed in when the poll closes.

A line of people waited to register, and Nelson said the polling place had experienced a large number of voters registering on site. “I called the city clerk to see if they could bring some help,” she said, but had only gotten voice mail. “People just have to be patient,” Nelson remarked.

Scroll down for "Republicans could challenge ballots in Racine"

Tuesday 4:45 p.m. - High School students explain why they are stumping to 'Get Out the Vote'

Tuesday 4:30 p.m. - Republicans could challenge ballots in Racine

By Paul Sloth, Journal Times

RACINE — Republicans in Racine County could challenge hundreds, maybe thousands of ballots cast in the City of Racine on Tuesday.

Election observers for the Republican Party of Racine County were challenging activities at more than one polling place in the city, including Fratt and Fine Arts schools.

Douglas Cannon, a Chicago attorney working for the Republican Party here and an election observer, said he would be conferring with state Republican Party officials to determine what action, if any, to take, that could include seeking injunctive relief, filing an official complaint or a lawsuit in federal court.

“We’re not trying to take away anybody’s ballot that was cast appropriately,” Cannon said Tuesday afternoon at the Republican Party headquarters on Washington Avenue.

Republican election observers complained to Racine City Clerk Janice Johnson-Martin that they saw supporters of Sen. Barack Obama allgedly help register people at some polling places in violation of the rules.

Republicans even sought assistance from the state’s Government Accountability Board, which upheld the party’s complaint, Cannon said.

For more, scroll down to "Obama observers told to not help register voters."

Tuesday 4:18 p.m. - Slow in Mount Pleasant

“I’ve got between 6,000 and 7,000 absentees, but I’ve got 20,000 voters,” said Juliet Edmands, the village clerk for Mount Pleasant. She said people were lined up outside the village hall at 5:30 p.m. on Monday to cast absentee ballots, but on Tuesday the polls were slow.

“Seven days a week we’ve been going,” said Pat Barlament, the chief election inspector at the Village Hall polling place.

But only 10 to 12 people at a time were coming in just after noon, she said. It was so slow that Barlament was starting to scan absentee ballots and gave a few workers to Edmands who put them to work in her central processing room, where absentee ballots were checked and assigned to the proper polling place for scanning.

Tuesday 3:20 p.m. - UPDATE: Obama observers told to not help register voters

By Stephanie Brien

RACINE – Three Obama campaign observers who were helping register people to vote and answering questions at Festival Hall were told they legally cannot do that.

According to state statute, observers may not engage in conversation with election officials or other electors concerning a candidate, party or question on the ballot, City Attorney Rob Weber said.

That state statute would include helping people register to vote and answering questions about what materials they need to register, Weber said, following advice he received from the Government Accountability Board.

“They shouldn’t be doing that because poll workers register people to vote at the polling place. No one else,” said Kyle Richmond, spokesperson for the Government Accountability Board. “Everybody has their roles and we can’t have campaign workers hanging out.”

“The most important thing is that voters have confidence in the entire process,” Richmond said.

The three campaign observers said they were working with the Barack Obama campaign, but they said they were not talking to voters about who to vote for or even asking their opinions. They said they were there to help the line run smoothly and answer questions so that people would not have to wait if they did not have proper materials to register.

“If we catch them before they wait in line, we can help them,” said Nicala Aiello, who was helping register voters.

Two of the three said they were deputized to register people to vote and the third, who was not deputized, said she was helping direct people where to register and vote.

“I feel my right to right to register people is violated,” said Angela Knuckles, who was working with Aiello.

Tuesday 2:30 p.m. - Poll workers need more time for absentee ballots

In Caledonia, Joan Ball, election inspector at the East Side Community Center, said things had been so busy that poll workers hadn’t had time to do much with absentee ballots.

But in Racine, there are poll workers dedicated to plowing through the thousands of ballots cast before Election Day. While people may vote early, their votes cannot be counted until Election Day. Stacks of ballots, many sealed in envelopes, sit at the absentee or early voter’s polling place until poll workers have time to run them through the machines.

Voters have been steadily coming through, which has left workers at the community center with little time to run any ballots through. Any absentee ballots left when the polls close at 8 p.m. must still be run through, to ensure everyone’s vote is counted.

At Racine polling places, City Clerk Janice Johnson-Martin hired additional poll workers whose primary focus is going through absentee ballots.

“Janice hired extra people and put them just on absentee,” said election inspector Kandy Helson. She was working at Stephen Bull Fine Arts Elementary School, 815 DeKoven Ave.

Tuesday 2:15 p.m. - Stephen Bull school had heavy voting this morning

Voters at Stephen Bull Fine Arts Elementary School, 815 DeKoven Ave., came in at a steady pace throughout the morning. The school’s gymnasium is the polling place for three of the city’s wards.

“We’ve been really busy,” said Kandy Helson, one of the site’s chief election inspectors. “People came before work, now there’s no waiting.”

The poll is also a popular place for election observers.

“There are lots of observers,” Helson said. “Everyone’s been cooperating. I think a lot of people care about the election. … A lot of people registered for this presidential election.”

Lillie Cameron, another chief inspector at Stephen Bull, said things are going smoothly, even with heavy turnout.

“We’ve been busy all day,” she said. “The line was all the way out of the gym.”

Things were slowing down in the middle of the day, but workers expected them to start picking up again mid-afternoon.

The biggest issue has been Mount Pleasant residents coming to vote at the city’s polling place. The border between Racine and Mount Pleasant is not always easy to figure out. If someone waits in line and finds out they are in the wrong place, the voter must go to the correct place and get back in line.

People should double-check their address against master lists available at all polling places.

Tuesday 1:55 p.m. - Young and old turn out to vote in Burlington

BURLINGTON — Hank Steffan has voted since he was a young man in 1942. Tyler Chic turned 18 about two months ago and cast his very first ballot in this election.

The gap between the two men couldn’t be much wider. Chic, turned 18 on September 8. Steffan is 82. Both men voted at Burlington United Methodist Church Tuesday.

Chic went to the polls with his friend Jake Taylor, 21, another first-time voter.

Steffan went to the polls with his wife of 59 years, Millie, 78. The couple hasn’t missed an election.

While the Steffans didn’t feel like sharing which candidate they voted for, Chic and Taylor said they both voted for Sen. Barack Obama. Chic, a student at Gateway Technical College said he’s been telling people to get out and vote. He was excited about voting in this election.

“I like to voice my opinion. If everybody puts their two cents in you have a million dollars worth of ideas,” Chic said outside the polling place.

Tuesday 1:35 p.m. - Ballot counting machines have trouble, ballots put into bins

There have been several reports of ballot counting machines having trouble Tuesday.

Marcie Englund , 32, said she left Faith United Methodist Church, 1013 Harmony Drive, before voting Tuesday morning because the machine counting the votes wasn’t working properly.

“When they were trying to put ballots in the machine, it kept spitting them back out,” Englund said. “There was a long line of people who had already voted, but couldn’t get their ballot in the machine.”

Then a poll worker started putting the ballots into a bin with those that the machine had already counted. “They weren’t being counted,” Englund said. “I left. I didn’t want my vote not to be counted correctly.”

The City of Racine’s clerks office said they were notified of the problem. The machine was checked out and found to be working properly.

Englund said she had gotten permission to leave work early so that she could go and cast her vote before the 5 p.m. after work rush.

The ballot counting machine also jammed Tuesday at Stephen Bull Fine Arts, 815 DeKoven Ave., according to a Journal Times staff member at the polling place.

In that case, absentee ballots that were entered into the machine earlier had been folded. Those folded ballots jammed the machine so no new ballots could be fed into it.

The machine was opened and the 340 ballots inside were pulled out.

Poll workers solved the issue by allowing voters to put their ballots into a bin in front of the machine. The ballots were then fed through after the machine was cleared of the paper problem.

Tuesday 1:25 p.m. - Attorneys assigned to polling places address whether felon can vote

Local attorneys are assigned to address legal questions that arise at Racine and Kenosha county polling places. Poll workers can call an attorney if needed.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Repischak said one of their first calls came from Waterford.

“A gentleman was not allowed to vote because he was a convicted felon,” Repischak said.

Repischak contacted the Wisconsin Department of Probation and Parole to determine whether or not the man is still serving his sentence. The answer? No.

“I called the gentleman and told him to go back to the polling place,” he said.

He gave the man an option to get some help at the poll.

“We (offered to have) an officer go pick him up and bring him back to the polling place,” Repischak said.

He said he did not know who raised the question of whether the man could vote.

Other than that, Repischak said the only things they have been called on to address were some issues with voting machines.

He said three people from the state Attorney General’s Office were in the District Attorney’s Office around 11 a.m. He said the team was going to Kenosha for the afternoon.

“They reported no real problems here,” he said. “So far, there have reported no incidents of note.”

Tuesday 1:15 p.m. - Election inspector: It's been too easy

Kathy Soens, chief election inspector at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 755 High St., said things have gone well so far. That hasn’t always been the case, said the veteran poll worker.

“It’s been too easy,” she said. “Something’s gotta happen. I know I ain’t going to go through this with nothing happening.”

Soens said this is her first election as a chief inspector, but the sixth year she has worked at the polls. In the past, she said she has worked at Fratt Elementary School.

“I expected the worst,” she said.

Voters moved through the line quickly, she said, and at 11:30 there was little or no wait.

“I’m not used to this lull like this,” Soens said.

Tuesday 1:15 p.m. - Republican election observer in Caledonia

At the East Side Community Center in Caledonia, Republican election observer Shirley Meldgaard said she and her husband John started working for the GOP earlier in the election season.

“We went to the Republican headquarters and asked what we could do,” she said. “We made phone calls for five weeks and John said ‘I don’t want to do calls anymore.’”

After that, the couple distributed signs and then signed up for training to become election observers.

Meldgaard said things at the East Side Community Center were going pretty well, though some people were pointing out potential problems with the voter roll. She said some had noticed names of neighbors who had moved, with lines through as if they had voted, Meldgaard said.

Tuesday 12:45 p.m. - Burlington voters finally get stickers

BURLINGTON — Voters in Burlington have something to look forward to this year in addition to casting their ballots — stickers.

Not just any ordinary sticker, but the “I voted” variety. It’s a first for the city, at least as far as longtime election inspectors like Romayne Larson can recall.

“The people are delighted with them,” Larson said late Tuesday morning. “We’re a small town. It takes us a while to catch on.”

It’s so unfamiliar in Burlington that election inspectors sometimes had to chase after voters to ask them if they wanted the sticker.

Now Burlington voters can finally strut out of their respective polling places proudly sporting the sticker that proves to family, friends and co-workers that they too cast their votes.

Tuesday 11:15 - Ballot machine issues fixed at Tyler-Domer Community Center

RACINE — At the Tyler-Domer Community Center, 2301 12th St., poll workers were unable to run a couple absentee ballots through the ballot counting machines, said Nancy Nelson, chief election inspector. She said the ballots had to be remade.

According to election inspector Bonnie Harlan for a short time in the beginning the ballot counting machine was not working, but they were able to get a technician to fix the machine. In the meantime, she said, the ballots were put into the machine's storage compartment until the machine was fixed, and then they were run through.

Turnout was much heavier than normal, Nelson said.

"There was a line at 7, which is very unusual for here," Nelson said. "Because we usually have low numbers. But they're all out there to vote today."

Tuesday 11 a.m. - Officers stationed in Caledonia to direct traffic

CALEDONIA — Officers have been directing traffic at the East Side Community Center, 6156 Douglas Ave., since early this morning.

Officer Melissa Stardy said this is the first time that police have been called in to direct traffic at the polls. Stardy said she has been on Douglas Avenue since 7:30 a.m., and third shift was there before that.

Northbound voters are being directed to park at the Wayne's Daughters garden center, 6207 Douglas Ave. Southbound voters can park at the community center.

Joan Ball, chief election inspector, said more than 300 people voted in the first hour they were open. People were in line before they arrived to open the polls, she said. She said that they have more than 1,000 absentee ballots from early voting to count.

"Our big worry is absentee and early votes," she said. "We've probably not counted more than a dozen. If this keeps up (they won't be counted) till after 8."

Two election observers from the Republican Party are stationed at the poll.

Tuesday 10:30 a.m. - 900 ballots cast in Burlington

BURLINGTON — Election inspectors in one of Burlington's two polling places emptied their machines at 10:30 a.m. after 900 people had cast their ballots.

They were very busy when the doors opened at 7 a.m., and it's been steady ever since, said Romayne Larson, chief election inspector at Burlington United Methodist Church, 857 West State St.

Larson, who has volunteered as an election inspector for the last 10 years, was surprised by the high turnout.

"There's been a lot of hype about this," Larson said. "I don't know that we knew what to expect."

Tuesday 10 a.m. - Union Grove voter says organization is excellent

UNION GROVE — Pat Dahl, 76, of Union Grove, said she had a good experience visiting the the village's polling place at the Municipal Building, 925 15th Ave.

“As I turned the corner, I saw this steady stream of cars going into the parking lot, and I thought ‘Uh-oh, this is going to be a trial,'” Dahl said.

But, she said, when she got in the parking lot there was someone directing her where to go, and then another person directing the voters for Union Grove and Yorkville, which share the same polling place.

All in all, she said, it took her about five minutes to vote. She said Union Grove should be a model for other municipalities.

“The organization is what did it in Union Grove," Dahl said. "Because otherwise it would have been a terrible, terrible mess.”

Tuesday 9:20 a.m. - Voters rewarded with free coffee

MOUNT PLEASANT — Lines at the Starbucks on Highway 20, inside and outside, are long. Inside there are at least six to seven people waiting at a time — most of them are wearing their "I voted today" stickers. Starbucks is giving away free drinks to people who vote today.

Linda Herman and Joe Lourigan came to Starbucks after casting their votes in Sturtevant at the Village Hall, 2801 89th St.

Herman, who got a green tea, had heard about the free coffee from a friend. Lourigan, who got a coffee, said he heard it on a commercial. Both said they voted for Sen. Barack Obama.

"He's our man," Lourigan said.

They said they are even thinking about going to Chicago tonight, where Obama is holding his Election Night celebration.

Jason Montano, 32, voted at McKinley Middle School, 2340 Mohr Ave., this morning, and then went to Starbucks after he heard he could get a free coffee over the radio. Montano voted for Sen. John McCain.

After receiving his coffee, Montano plans to head to his job at Grace Church, 3236 Highway 31.

Tuesday 8:45 a.m. - Lines 'real short' at Fratt Elementary School

RACINE — The line for waiting to vote at Fratt Elementary School, 3501 Kinzie Ave., starts at the entrance to the gym and goes across the gymnasium, but most voters said the wait is not as bad as they expected at this typically busy polling place.

"It wasn't bad," said Gary Wortham, 45. "My line was real short. Everything went smoothly."

Wortham said he voted for Sen. Barack Obama.

"He is a constitutional scholar and at the end of the day the cornerstone of this country is the Constitution," Wortham.

State Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, said he voted at Fratt. Lehman is not on the ballot this election.

"You can probably guess that I voted Democratic," he said.

Lehman said the excitement shown by this election was unlike anything he had seen.

"It's wonderful, you feel democracy in action," he said. "I can't remember in my lifetime this much excitement on both sides. It's really good for our country."

Lines at Fratt are shorter around 9 a.m., but others said that the lines had been longer earlier in the day as people stopped in to vote before they went to work.

Tuesday 8:25 a.m. - Spoiled ballot listed on log of incidents

RACINE — It's taking 30 minutes to get through the line to vote at Cesar Chavez Community Center, 2221 Douglas Ave.

A log of incidents at the polling place has three items to report: polls open; a spoiled ballot (generally means a ballot is marked wrong by voter and voter asks for another); a ballot was put in the wrong machine, for the wrong ward.

Tuesday 7:55 a.m. - Obama observers are pleased

RACINE — Obama observers at Cesar Chavez Community Center are so far impressed with operation of the polls, according to a Journal Times reporter on the scene.

But one woman is upset, saying that new registrants are getting to vote faster than those already registered.

Tuesday 7:50 a.m. - Mason supporters hold signs at highways 20 and 31

MOUNT PLEASANT — A group of about five people hold campaign signs for State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, at the intersection of highways 20 and 31. Mason is running for re-election.

Tuesday 7:45 a.m. - Line is out the door

RACINE — The line at the Cesar Chavez Community Center is out the door, according to a Journal Times reporter. About 30 people are waiting outside with cars continuously pulling up.

More people were in line at 7 a.m. than during the primary, said an election inspector.

Tuesday 7:20 a.m. - Ballot counting machine breaks

RACINE — A ballot counting machine broke after one ballot, backing up an already long line at at the Tyler-Domer Community Center, 2301 12th Street, in Racine where about 50 people were waiting in line to vote.

The machine was fixed soon after. It is working as of 7:30 a.m.

Tuesday 7:10 a.m. - Half-hour wait for voters at Goodland Elementary School

RACINE — The line for the polling place at Goodland Elementary School, 4800 Graceland Blvd., is about half an hour shortly after the polls opened at 7 a.m. The line stretches out the door of the school's gymnasium along the sidewalk, about 3/4 of the way to the street.

Poll workers say there have been no incidents to report. By 7:40 a.m., about 90 voters have cast their ballots.

Tuesday 6 a.m. - People didn't expect the line at Burlington polling place

BURLINGTON — A line started forming around 6 a.m. at Cross Lutheran Church in Burlington Tuesday morning. Voters in line said they didn’t expect to see a line and didn’t remember one during the last election in 2004, according to a Journal Times reporter at the site.

As soon as the polls opened, the line moved quickly. In the first 15 minutes, 50 people had voted with an estimated 50 to 75 more waiting in line to get their ballots first thing this morning.

Monday 6:20 p.m. - Last of the early voters

RACINE — Donta Albritton not only has the distinction of being the last early voter at Racine City Hall this election season. He also was a big help late Monday afternoon to his roommate, Erica Alexander.

Confronted with an unexpected wait of an hour to an hour and a half to register and vote, Albritton kept Alexander’s place in line while she scurried to pick up her kids Fred, 5, and Alexus, 7, at day care and get back to City Hall before the city clerk’s staff stopped allowing people in at 5 p.m.

Alexander was grateful because she is scheduled to work Tuesday at her job in Illinois and was worried she wouldn’t get back in time to vote. This year is the first year she is voting and Alexander she said she is “very excited” about the opportunity to participate in the electoral process.

Arriving just before the close of voting Monday, Albritton and Alexander were able to enjoy a few moments of cool night air until the line finally moved up the stairs into the first-floor corridor of City Hall. There, the temperature increased dramatically, especially after other City Hall entrances had to be shut after 5 p.m. to make sure latecomers didn’t try to sneak in after the deadline.

Earlier in the day, the Racine Health Department staff had placed hand-fans at a table near a stairwell to help those waiting to keep cool.

Just as Alexander was happy and excited, so too was Jose Diaz, who by 5:30 p.m. was within feet of getting into the room where registration was taking place. This is also Diaz’s first election, made possible by his recent obtaining of U.S. citizenship. An hour wait in a warm, stuffy hallway could not quell the thrill of voting for the first time.

After identifying Albritton as the last voter for the day, Racine City Clerk Janice Johnson-Martin helped Albritton get a head start on registration paperwork and also shooed away a few latecomers, telling them they would have to wait to vote at their regular polling places between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. today.

Shortly after 5 p.m., Johnson-Martin said she had no idea how many people had passed through the early-voting stations on Monday. But voter traffic had been steady, she said, starting with lines out the doors at 7:15 a.m. The clerk said it was taking registered voters about 20 to 30 minutes to get to the voting booths and about an hour to 1 1/2 hours for nonregistered residents.

Monday 2:41 p.m. - AP: Volunteers getting out voters across the state

MADISON — Volunteers continued going door-to-door across Wisconsin on Monday as part of a last-minute push to get out the vote and potentially sway any last minute deciders.

With polls showing Democrat Barack Obama enjoying a double-digit lead in the state, he and Republican John McCain were campaigning elsewhere the day before the election. But their backers were out in full force in Wisconsin.

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat, spent the morning in Milwaukee to thank volunteers for their efforts and kick off efforts to get voters out to the polls. Volunteers working for McCain were up to much the same work, planning a 12-hour push to knock on doors.

"We're feeling great," said McCain and Wisconsin Republican Party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. "We're not paying attention to the polls. It's really about instinct and what's happening on the ground. We're hitting stride right at the right time."

Obama campaign spokesman Matt Lehrich said volunteers were launching get-out-the-vote operations from 200 sites around the state with a focus on knocking on as many doors as possible. Campaign phones were also ringing off the hook with voters looking for help finding their polling sites, he said.

"I think we are well positioned to win if we continue to work very hard, if we don't take anything for granted and keep knocking on doors," Lehrich said.

The McCain campaign in Wisconsin also scheduled a rally on Monday with more than 100 women who planned to march to the Obama office to voice their support for McCain.

Monday 1:45 p.m. - No lines in Mount Pleasant

At the Mount Pleasant Village Hall, there was a 20 to 30-minute wait around lunch time to vote. Now there is no wait to vote, according to a Journal Times reporter.

Monday 1:35 p.m. - Long lines in Racine

According to a voter in Racine, the line to cast a ballot is about an hour and a half long at City Hall. The wait is even longer for those who are not yet registered.

Monday 1:21 p.m. - AG won't appeal voter lawsuit before election

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen won't appeal a decision dismissing his voter registration lawsuit before Election Day.

The lawsuit demanded state election officials verify the identity of tens of thousands of voters registered since Jan. 1, 2006, and do it by Election Day Tuesday.

Van Hollen is a Republican and co-chairman of GOP presidential hopeful John McCain's Wisconsin campaign. Democrats have complained Van Hollen wanted to suppress voter turnout.

A Dane County judge dismissed the lawsuit on Oct. 23, saying Van Hollen didn't have the authority to sue. Justice Department officials said that day they planned to appeal, but spokesman Bill Cosh said Monday the agency realizes there's no chance of relief before the election.

Monday 8:30 a.m. - Line forms at Racine City Hall

At 7 a.m., an hour before the Racine City Hall opened its doors, people started lining up to vote.

The line was more than 60 people long by the time the doors opened. Audrey Vesnefsky, a Kenosha business owner who stood at the front of the line, was in the front of the line. She said that her long hours tomorrow would make it hard to vote.

Chris Curtis, who got in line at 7:30 a.m., said he usually votes but has never voted early before.

"I just don't want to get in line tomorrow," he said.

Latasha Brown got in line at 8 a.m. Like Vesnefsky, her schedule on Election Day would make it difficult to vote.

"I am in school ... the first half of the day and work the second half," said Brown, a Gateway nursing student. "The sooner I get in, the sooner i get out."

People can vote early at Racine City Hall until 4:55 p.m. Monday.

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