Even if you were lying in a hospital bed at Hennepin County Medical Center today, you still got the opportunity to vote.

Nursing staff asked all patients who arrived at the hospital within the past 24 hours if they wanted to vote.

Fifteen said yes.

“It’s not huge, but it’s more than ever,” says Sheila Moroney, HCMC’s manager of customer service. “We’ve offered it before, but we’ve never had more than one or two people who want to do it.”

The patients who voted signed a form authorizing a hospital staffer (the “Agent”) to retrieve their ballot from the Hennepin County Government Center or City Hall. The patients’ registrations were verified, and the hospital Agent brought the ballots back to the patients with secrecy envelopes.

The patients filled out their ballots in the privacy of their hospital room, and a witness signed the back of the envelope indicating it was an authentic ballot. The Agent then returned the ballots back to the appropriate location – the Government Center or City Hall, and voila! Voting accomplished, from bed!

In the case of three patients, HCMC was also able to get them registered.

“That’s an extra bonus if they had arrived here unawares,” says Moroney.

“It sounds so minimal, just 15 people and all that effort,” says Moroney. “But it really is a true embodiment of ‘every vote counts.’ It just seemed to really please the patients that they were able to connect and vote.”

Moroney says she thinks most hospitals provide similar Election Day service to voters.

The Obama Minnesota office has received dozens of reports from people who have received an anonymous, misleading email stating that, because of long lines at the polls, Obama supporters should vote on Wednesday.

The erroneous e-mail has surfaced in many other states, too, said Nick Kimball, the regional communications director for Obama.(He's my nephew.)

"We're really not too worried about it," he said."But we want to make sure in the last few hours of voting that the people have accurate information: If people are in line by 8 p.m., they can still vote tonight. And you can only vote today."

It’s been a busy day for both candidates in the 1^st Congressional District in southern Minnesota, with incumbent Democratic Rep. Tim Walz and Republican challenger Dr. Brian Davis taking it to the streets all day.

According to campaign manager Chris Schmitter, Walz cast his vote at 7 a.m. at his local polling place in Mankato, was out door-knocking in Mankato at 8 a.m., hit a church service at Gustavus at 10 a.m., then high-tailed it across the district to Rochester.

Davis cast his vote at 8 a.m. at his local polling place in Rochester, then hit phone banks for most of the morning and took to street corners with supporters around the district, campaign manager Mike Spellings said late this afternoon.

Both campaigns said that the turnout appears to be high. What does that mean in a district that for most of the 20^th century elected Republicans to the seat, but now has a Democrat in Washington with deep ties in the community?

“In my estimation, it does help” Davis, Spellings said. “The district is conservative, and that’s where the base of support is. It’s a presidential campaign with candidates on the opposite ends of the spectrum, and we’re more confident that that will help us.”

But the Walz campaign believes the youth vote will help the congressman win reelection. “Two years ago, Congressmen Walz went to Minnesota State University, Mankato, and really had to talk to students about registering and voting,” Schmitter said. “This year, everyone had already registered. You don’t know which candidate they’re going for, but that’s potentially helpful to us.”

Note: Please see UPDATE#3 below.

MinnPost.com is using the "2008 Election Results from Google" widget on our home page to show real-time election results compiled by Associated Press.

However, we noticed Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley is not included in results for "Minnesota: U.S. Senate". MinnPost contacted Google.com about this issue and was told it was an oversight when planning the map presentation.

Rick Klau from Google.com replied to emails saying the Barkley data should have been in the map, but concludes "...there's no way to change the map at this point."

UPDATE#1: Klau set me an e-mail with this: "[T]the Senate layer for Minnesota does show 'Others' so the 3rd party vote will be reflected on the map." Therefore, assuming Barkley would lead third party votes we can at least get an idea if Coleman and Franken are being contested.

UPDATE#2: At some point today, Google appears to have fixed the problem. Dean Barkley total votes are displayed when you hover over MN. Libertarian Party candidate Charles Aldrich is also included.

UPDATE#3: Rick Klau from Google.com sent me further clarification today, stating that the "2008 Election Results from Google" map widget actually displayed third party candidate data all along! He says, "The upper-right corner only showed two names (plus an "Other" below), but the hover box always included any named candidate on the ballot. So it was correct from the start." The confusion for me started before precincts were reporting -- Both Coleman and Franken had "0%" displaying after their names. I assumed incorrectly that no other data would be displayed. 

Election Results Interactive Map -- Hover your mouse over each state to view precincts reporting for John McCain and Barack Obama. Also use the form in the upper left corner of the map to choose a specific state and specific race (President, U.S. House or U.S. Senate.)

Late in the afternoon, volunteers for both U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and DFL challenger El Tinklenberg still were trying to round up voters, though as the day wore on it was getting harder to find people who hadn't already voted.

"We expected a high turnout and it certainly is that,'' said Michelle Marston, spokeswoman for Bachmann.

Her big hope/belief: "I think people have moved on from 'Hardball,' " she said.

Meantime, the Tinklenberg supporters were hoping to see long lines of voters at colleges in the district tonight.

Dean Barkley, the Independence Party for U.S. senator, prides himself on being outside of politics as usual, and late this afternoon, he certainly was thinking outside the political box.

“You can’t sweat the things you have no control over,” Barkley said when reached by cell by MinnPost, sounding especially relaxed. Barkley was so relaxed, in fact, that after a couple of radio appearances in the morning, casting his vote at 10 a.m., then speaking at the Golden Valley Rotary Club, he actually went golfing.

“I shot nine holes and scored a 40,” Barkley said of his outing at Hollydale Golf Course in Plymouth.

A couple of things had Barkley feeling upbeat. First, he managed to raise some money and run some television ads, to the tune of $100,000, starting last Thursday. How many ran? “I have no idea, you’ll have to talk to Bill Hillsman,” Barkley said of the local political ad guru who did the spots. “I don’t interfere in what he does.”

Second, Barkley was encouraged by what looks to be at least 80 per cent eligible voter turnout, noting that the 60 per cent turnout in 1998 help propel Jesse Ventura into the governor’s office.

“New voters who come out aren’t Democrats or Republicans,” Barkley reasoned.

As for the lasting impressions of the three-way Senate race with Al Franken and Norm Coleman, Barkley offered: “The tone of the campaign. That and the economy are the major factors here.”

In all, Barkley said he hopes he’s presented an alternative to what Coleman and Franken have given in a pretty negative campaign. “I set out to give people a choice, and I think I did that,” he concluded. “We’ll see if people are disgusted with my two opponents. But it’s up to the voters at this point, and that’s what it’s all about.”

At Turtle Lake Elementary School in Shoreview, pint-sized voters stepped up to miniature booths this afternoon and checked off their choices for U.S. president, Minnesota Supreme Court justices and all of the other races on the state’s official ballots.

It was a project of the Minnesota chapter of Kids Voting USA, a national effort to secure the future of democracy by teaching kids to be educated and engaged voters.

Actually, the kids’ voting booths in a hallway just outside the official polling station were providing a civics lesson on two levels. Juniors and seniors from Irondale and Moundsview senior high schools were learning too as they walked younger kids through the voting process and the ballot choices.

Sarah Vetsch, a senior at Moundsview, said she volunteered in her government class for the duty because it was a good cause for the country’s future. And also, her teacher offered extra credit!

One thing that surprised Vetsch and the other student volunteers was how engaged younger kids are in this year’s presidential election. Many needed help filling in their ballots, but even the youngest knew how they wanted to vote.  

Got a robo voicemail today from Jeff Blodgett, Obama's Get Out the Vote guru in Minnesota. (He happens to be a neighbor, but this was totally robo.)

Message said the contest in Minnesota is "actually closer than we expected" and said the Obama campaign is seeking door-knockers and volunteers for 5 o'clock tonight?

Are the polls wrong?

In Duluth's Lincoln Park/West End neighborhood, the 28th precinct's head election judge, Anges Vogel, said at 1:30 p.m. she had already had 668 voters.

"It's heavy today, more than usual," she said. "We usually have about 200." 

At midafternoon, voting was brisk, with no waiting for registered voters. "We've got a lot of new people voting," Vogel said. Voters seemed to be a lively and diverse mix of young people, women with children, retirees and others during the day.

Duluth voters will be electing some city councilors as well as deciding how much taxpayers should boost the operational levy.

* * *

In the 8th precinct on Duluth's east side, in the basement of Duluth Congregational Church, head election judge Phyllis Sulkowski said this was largest turnout she's seen in her 33 years as a judge. "I've been in this precinct for 20 years," Sulkowski said. "We have 2,070 registered voters here and we're over halfway there" as of 2 p.m.

"We had darn near 300 voters in the first hour," she said, before barking, "No, no!" at a young voter who was trying to deliver his completed ballot to the wrong person. She directed him to the ballot counter.

 * * *

In rural Silver Creek Township, 10 miles north of Two Harbors, John Cornell stood outside to take a picture of the idyllic township hall where residents vote, nestled between a farm and a cemetery surrounded by pines.

"I love voting here," he said, adding he's been doing so for about 10 years. When asked why he voted this time around, he pointed at his Obama-Biden pin and said, simply, "That's why."

Inside, election judge Laura Kleive said turnout was "really great." "So far we've had almost half of our registered voters come in," she said, saying about 470 had voted as of 2:30 p.m.

St. Louis and Lake counties regularly post some of the highest voter turnout in Minnesota, a state that prides itself on energized voters.

Be careful what you wear to the polls today ...

When voter Jim Leinfelder went to cast his ballot in the lobby of a North Minneapolis condo late this morning, an election judge made him turn his “Everyone Poops” T-shirt inside out.

“ ‘Why?’ I ask,” says Leinfelder. “and the poll worker said gravely, ‘Because it has political symbols on it.’ ”

“(The T-shirt) has both major parties' symbols on it, combined with the well-known phrase ‘Everyone poops,’ co-opted from the popular children's book,” says Leinfelder, a writer and freelance television producer.

He says he tried to explain the humor in the T-shirt to the poll worker.

“The gestalt of the T-shirt is comity among people of differing points of view,” says Leinfelder, recounting what he said to the poll worker. “Despite our political differences, there are fundamental human needs around which we can coalesce and achieve long-absent consensus.”

The elections worker wouldn't budge and told Leinfelder there were people in the lobby ready to challenge his vote because of his T-shirt.

Rules are rules.

“In the interest of just getting my votes tallied and not wanting to hike back home for a change of clothes, I peeled off my non-partisan T-shirt and put it back on inside out,” says Leinfelder.”

“Anyway, it was a real buzz kill to a voting experience I'd been looking so forward to for so long,” he says.