Adaora visits a crowded Atlanta polling place

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

America’s Exit Poll is open.

JOHN:

Hi, this is John from Connecticut. I just left polling and I could not believe the amazing turnout and sense of doing what we had to do as Americans. And it gives you pause, and it’s a great day.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

It’s the ultimate non-partisan experience ? voting. Today’s the election. Tell us your story at 877-8MYTAKE or Mytake@thetakeaway.org. And our, you know, Southern perch of America’s Exit Poll is in Atlanta, Georgia this morning, where Adaora Udoji joins me from Fulton County’s government building. Adaora, what’s it like down there?

ADAORA UDOJI:

Hey there, John, good morning. We are in Atlanta. We actually had to move around a bit because there wasn’t so much happening downtown at that federal government building that many may recall from all of the pictures we saw ? lines snaked around the corner when early voting started.

We’re actually on Martin Luther King Boulevard and we’re standing between Friendship Towers and Central Ministry Church. And the lines are steady here. They’re moving actually quite quickly.

And so we now have Cornelius Scott, who is a high school teacher of U.S. History and Economics, and he just voted, and I’m going to let you talk to him for a minute to talk about his experience and how excited he is about this election.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

So good –

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Good morning, John. How’s it going?

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Good morning. So it was worth standing in line, eh?

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Now, do you think the early voting has reduced the pressure there in Atlanta with so many people having voted? It may be a light day there in Atlanta. What do you think?

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Well, I think at this point, light is a relative term. I’ve seen more in voter turnout than I’ve ever seen my lifetime. Granted, I’m young, 31 years of age, so I was – I did participate in the last two elections, but without a doubt, I mean, I’m seeing ? if I just had to give an estimate at this polling place here, probably about as much as 20 times as many people, if not more, honestly.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Wow.

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Even with the early voting.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Well, then, it sounds to me as though the early voting actually increased turnout. It’s sort of, you know, given everybody a reason, a reminder to go to the polls because today’s the last day. It’s kind of like the last day of a sale or something. That’s really exciting.

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Yeah. I would go so far as to agree with that.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Now, what’s it like in line? What are people talking about? Is there a lot of partisan arguing? Anybody making up their mind right up ’til the end?

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Well, I would say no, and that’s important to the fact I’m actually located downtown, right where ? right on the edge of downtown of southwest Atlanta, and so in this particular area it almost goes without saying that most people are actually going to vote for Barack Obama and Biden.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

All right. Well, thanks so much for talking to us and for participating in America’s Exit Poll.

CORNELIUS SCOTT:

Okay, thank you.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Adaora?

ADAORA UDOJI:

He said he’s very excited. And I asked him, have you ever seen so many black people voting? And he said he saw a lot in 2004, but this time it’s just been a rush.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

I guess what’s really interesting is how this election has managed to maintain a party atmosphere even in an infrastructure that is obviously strained. I saw your memo from yesterday of a thousand-person line outside that Fulton County Government Building.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Oh, right, and that was last week. And it definitely is a party atmosphere. We’ve heard stories about how people have been selling food to those who were waiting in those long lines. They’re [LAUGHS] selling lawn chairs for three dollars for those people who are waiting up to six, eight hours.

And I’ve never been lectured by a 25-year-old about the importance to vote – and this is my fourth election that I’ve covered, my fourth presidential election – about the importance of voting and how it really does matter.

So while people are suspicious in terms of whether or not all of the votes are going to be counted, there is a general sense that you have to do your part, which is why you’ve seen these overwhelming numbers throughout the state of Georgia in the early voting period, and particularly in Fulton and DeKalb Counties, which are two of the largest counties in the state.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Now, of course –

ADAORA UDOJI:

And that begs the question whether or not these Democratic voters who are so excited are going to overwhelm the Republican voters, and particularly those who in the past have tended to vote early.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

I mean, I’m wondering if there’s a bit of a bubble in Fulton County in the sense that it is really ground zero for the Barack Obama support in Georgia. What are you sensing at precincts outside of Atlanta?

ADAORA UDOJI:

A good, solid turnout. There are several right around. Fulton County is surrounded by others – Marietta, Bay Area, East Cobb and other places where they’ve reported steady, steady turnout but not necessarily the same numbers. When you look at the breakdown there’s been more Democrats who have voted early than Republicans.

And so, it’s just hard to say, John. We’re all reading tea leaves. I mean, as Andrea was just saying in terms of the polling, about who gets polled and who doesn’t, who’s a likely voter and who isn’t, and when you have populations – you’re looking at statistical models that include populations that have been underrepresented in the past, it’s hard to measure how far that enthusiasm goes and what those numbers ultimately end up looking like.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Now, I talked with my mother-in-law early on in the program, down in Tallahassee, and she [LAUGHS] was telling me off the air that the campaigns were involved in making this party atmosphere work in some of the long lines.

Are you getting a sense that the campaigns are maybe selling the lawn chairs, that maybe the campaigns are bringing the hot coffee to some of these long lines?

ADAORA UDOJI:

[LAUGHS] You know, I wouldn’t bet against it. I don’t have any hard proof that that’s the case. But, as I said, when we went to that rally last night, there was a bus, and it was the Obama party bus, and they were busing people in from various points to participate at the state house, at the state capital building last night, so there is a tremendous amount of organization. And even Republican strategists and Republican officials that you speak to will say, look, they’ve really outdone us this time.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Wow.

ADAORA UDOJI:

They’ve gotten excited, they’ve gotten organized, they have been using the Internet. And that’s one of the big stories in Georgia as well as the national story for the Barack Obama campaign ? it’s just their heavy use of technology –

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Right.

ADAORA UDOJI:

– and how they essentially created this wave with MySpace and Facebook and Twitter and ?

[OVERTALK]

? connecting people.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Well, win or lose, win or lose? This is the story. The organization that Barack Obama has created, where does it go now – win or lose? Adaora Udoji live in Atlanta, Georgia.