[UPDATE 10/23]: Turnout numbers coming in today continue along these trends. Prince George's County (which Obama won with almost 89% of the vote) continues to demonstrate strong relative turnout.

Early voting in Maryland, new for the state, started this morning. The numbers we are seeing so far bode well for Democrats. We have received reports of 20 minutes lines in Bowie (second highest turnout in Prince George's County so far) and poll workers in Rockville tell us it has been busier than they expected.

Total votes as of 2:00pm today

Prince George's: 2,738

Carroll: 379

Total votes cast in 2008

Prince George's: 363,249

Carroll: 94,127

Representative James Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, while on the Tom Joyner's show said, "Reelect me, keep Democrats on the field. And when we come back next year, maybe we will get to the public option."

At the One Nation Working Together rally on October 2nd, I got the chance to talk with Richard Trumka, the President of the AFL-CIO, about the upcoming elections and the enthusiasm gap. Mr. Trumka claims that the Democrats are "Absolutely" going to overcome the enthusiasm gap. He goes on to say that union members stood with the Democrats in 2008 and will do so again this year.

When asked what message he has for discouraged voters who feel there has not been enough progress, Trumka blamed the pace of progress on a "determined Republican opposition to stop everything... They told you what they'll do if they get elected. They'll take us back to when the time Wall St and corporate America ruled America and controlled the agenda. They told you that they'll raise the age of retirement and social security. There will be no more jobs legislation. There will be no more unemployment extension. We have to keep the progress going that we started."

You can watch my entire interaction with Trumka:

When Meg Whitman was asked about recent reports that she had employed an illegal immigrant and may or may not have been aware of that status, she reacted sharply:

"Jerry, you should be ashamed," Whitman said. "You and your surrogates put her deportation at risk. You put her out there. You should be ashamed for sacrificing Nicky Diaz on the altar of your political ambitions."

She went on to ask what she should have done, if she should have called INS and had Nicky Diaz deported.

What Whitman fails to recognize, is the gaping hole in anti-immigrant philosophy that she highlights in that question: that anti-immigrant advocates a never in favor of going after the people who hire illegals.

We must not go after the well-to-do, white Americans that hire illegal immigrants, they are just doing the best they can. But those down-right mean immigrants coming here and taking the jobs being offered to them should be deported by any means necessary, even if it means splitting families and endangering children.

To answer Whitman's question (should she have had Diaz deported?), well, no, I don't believe that way, but doesn't she? Isn't that exactly the position of the GOP and their candidate? If not, I am confused. I thought they were against illegal immigrants taking jobs from Americans?

A while back, a couple of us here at Sum of Change got involved in meetings with a great group of folks about working together to provide insider reporting of Capitol Hill with an outsider perspective. In time, we became Main Street Insider. Today, Main Street Insider released a new show, 90 Second Summaries.