Getting Ready For Kentucky and Oregon

Image details: Barack Obama Campaigns Throughout Oregon Ahead Of State’s Primary served by picapp.com

Yesterday, Barack Obama held a rally on the banks of the Willamette River to start getting Oregonians excited about Tuesday’s primary.

75,000 people came. Heck, the rally went beyond standing room only on the river banks to crowding the river itself: small craft (including kayaks) loaded with Obama supporters were out on the water.

To put it nicely, Oregon and Kentucky’s primaries tend not to matter. After all, in a typical election year, both parties have an obvious nominee long before May rolls around. But, as we continue to watch the Democratic nomination process move on, we can all tell that this year is different from all others.

Both states are already experiencing higher-than-normal voting turnout, through early voting (absentee, etc.). They aren’t get some of the extraordinary turnouts that other states have experienced, although we may want to add ‘yet’ to that statement. Kentucky’s Board of Election, as of Friday evening, reported about 19,000 voters had already turned in ballots — about 196 percent of the number that had done so at the same time during the 2004 election cycle.

The Democratic primary machine keeps grinding on.