UPDATE: The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that the “unprecedented” volume of absentee and early votes in Lake County will slow the counting process.

Under normal conditions, by 9 p.m. all absentee and early votes are usually counted, allowing workers to focus solely on the votes cast during the day by machine. Because of the volume of this election, additional counters had to be brought in, and the counting time will still be twice that of any prior election in Lake County.

Lake County is the state’s second-largest, behind Marion (Indianapolis), with nearly a half-million residents, according to 2006 census figures. It’s in Chicago’s shadow, and there are legends of vote manipulation there through the years — figuring out how many votes are needed, and then coming up with them. Not sayin’ that’s going on here, nor would I know if Obama has nearly that much clout there. But it’s curious that all the other counties have reported partial totals as they went along. But not Lake. Nothing reported as of 11:30 p.m. EDT.

Oh, Danny Boy’s
Didn’t have the gas, literally or figuratively, to go out to a bar to check the election results in my home state. But I did synch the DVR and watch Obama speak while listening to NPR, and lo and behold, Linda Wertheimer is out reporting for the network in a sweet lil’ bar about five minutes away from the homestead called Danny Boy’s. It’s over by the Colgate plant.

She made the fantastic point that Southern Indiana voters have long called themselves Democrats even while they think pretty conservatively. In Indiana, where you now must show a photo ID to vote, they first ask you which primary you want to vote in, Democrat or Republican. If you want to vote on the ballot with the most action, that usually means Democrat. And after they vote in the races of local interest, they go on and make a choice at the top. Ipso facto, conservative Southern Indiana Republicrats see Hillary Clinton as the clearly more conservative choice.

But right now it looks like the votes from Gary may at least make this race closer than the Clinton campaign probably figured on.

i will be curious to see if there’s any kind of drawn out controversy over voting up that way. (CS)