Washington, D.C. — As the mayoral election between Washington, D.C.'s top two Democratic candidates — Adrian Fenty and Vince Gray — heads into its last weeks, TBD will be tracking away. Herewith, all the controversy, debates, forums, polls, issues, endorsements, statistics and killer quotes we can muster.

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Monday, Aug. 30, 9:15 p.m.

OVER 1,000 CAST BALLOTS ON FIRST DAY OF EARLY VOTING

According to a tweet from the elections board, 1,094 ballots were cast during the first day of early voting in District history. That number includes 138 special ballots, and is short of the 2,000 votes officials said they were expecting this morning.

— @kevinrobillard

Monday, Aug. 30, 9:09 p.m.

GRAY CAMP SAYS VIDEO SHOWS FENTY'S DESPERATION

The Fray took a break this afternoon for technical readjustments. While we were gone, the Gray campaign released its own video of the Fenty staffer who disrupted Gray's press conference this morning. The video identifies the staffer as Josh Lopez, Fenty's Ward 4 coordinator. A release with the video cited it as evidence that the Fenty campaign was getting desperate.

—@kevinrobillard

Monday, Aug. 30, 3:30 p.m.

ROUNDING UP THE FIRST MORNING OF EARLY VOTING

The Fenty and Gray campaigns are exploring uncharted territory as they plot their tactics for the District’s first early voting period.

The District’s Board of Elections and Ethics is expecting as much as a quarter of the Democratic primary electorate to cast their ballots before primary day, and both campaigns will try to bank their most die-hard supporters so they can spend time closer to the election persuading undecideds and making sure less enthusiastic voters get to the polls.

The D.C. BOEE had served about 800 voters by 3 p.m., spokeswoman Alysoun McLaughlin said. The longest wait came around the lunchhour, when some residents were in line for about 90 to 100 minutes, she said.

"We anticipated a crunch and we've gotten through it," she said. "And we're ready for the next crunch this evening."

While he wouldn’t discuss specifics, Gray campaign manager Adam Rubinson said early voting gives campaigns additional time to adjust their strategy as election day approaches.

“Every day becomes like election day,” he said. “Except you don’t have to turn out all your voters.”

While campaigns have always been able to adjust on the fly on election day, Rubinson said, early voting will give them more chances to fine-tune their approaches and adjust where resources are going.

And it’s safe to expect many of those resources to go towards turning out seniors. Elderly voters usually make up a good chunk of early voters, and they are free during the day to go vote. Several elderly voters interviewed after casting their ballots said the process was convenient for them (being able to sit while waiting to vote was a big improvement over primary day’s long lines.)

A few other bits from the first morning of early voting:

• If you are in line at 7 p.m., you will be allowed to vote.
• The estimated wait times on D.C. BOEE’s website are for registered voters. Residents who need to register before casting their ballots should expect longer waits.
• D.C. BOEE expects a large number of voters today and tomorrow followed by a tailing off for the rest of the work week. Numbers should spike again on Saturday, when people have free time and when the four auxiliary polling places throughout the city open.

—@kevinrobillard, @slarimer

POST EDITORIAL BOARD BREAKS INTERNAL EMBARGO, FEW SEEM TO CARE

Whether the topic is a high-profile police investigation or the latest Adrian Fenty dust-up, Washington Post editorial writer Jo-Ann Armao has displayed a knack for lacing her opinions with breaking news. Usually the scoops come from interviews, documents, and killer sources — shoe-leather stuff.

Armao's scoop from Saturday afternoon, however, didn't entail quite as much enterprise. She was writing an editorial demolishing one of mayoral candidate Vince Gray's central attacks on incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty. In that piece, she tucked in the revelation that Gray, "according to a Washington Post poll published Sunday is leading in the race to become Washington's next mayor..."

Google Alerts knows from news, and broadcast the scooplet to interested individuals just before 8 p.m. Saturday. That was approximately four hours before any tidbit about the poll was supposed to air publicly. The Post's Metro crew had placed a 12:01 a.m. Sunday embargo on this precious cargo, for whatever reason — why drop a piece as sweet and explosive as that poll when everyone is drunk or asleep?

Were people at Metro pissed? That's too strong a suggestion. "It seems often that editorial knows what we’re doing but we don’t know what they’re doing," says a source on the other side of the firewall. Top Metro editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz declined to comment on the matter, citing the fact that TBD is a direct competitor to the Post.

Editorial Page editor Fred Hiatt took the fall for whatever problems the leak may have caused. "I should have kept our editorial out until 12:01 a.m., and it was my screwup," says Hiatt. "I didn’t realize that our editorial was being posted before the poll story." Armao says she found out about the poll because the editorial board can get look-sees at Post stories so that editorials can be updated based on late-breaking news.

If there was any foul here, it's tough to document the harm. Armao's full disclosure, after all, likely pumped up Web excitement for the poll, a process that TBD itself aided.

When asked whether his self-described "screw-up" may not have been a screw-up at all, Hiatt responded, "You called me, I didn't call you."

— @erikwemple

Monday, Aug. 30, 12:29 p.m.

LUNCHTIME WAITS FOR EARLY VOTING EXCEEDING AN HOUR

DCist reports that the BOEE reports that wait times were up to 100 minutes at Judiciary Square, but it's now down to 60 minutes, according to the site. But, they are still recommending voters consider waiting until midweek to vote. (So, vote a little less early.)

FENTY STAFFER DISRUPTS GRAY ENDORSEMENT RALLY

A campaign staffer for Mayor Adrian Fenty disrupted a Vince Gray press conference this morning with a loudspeaker, leading to shouting and a confrontation between supporters of the two candidates.

As Gray’s press conference was beginning at 9:30 a.m., a Fenty campaign staffer with a microphone appeared at the back of crowd of Gray supporters and media members. Loudspeaker in hand, he began speaking Fenty’s slogans over the sound of the press conference, drawing the attention of the crowd.

“Change has enemies,” the staffer said. “We are a campaign running on results.”

One Gray supporter started yelling at the man nonsensically: “Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Tea Party! Tea Party! Tea Party!”

Another elderly woman began directly confronting him before other Gray supporters pulled her away.

The man was pushed further away from the crowd, and the press conference was able to continue.

The conference featured Gray flanked by many of the groups — including organized labor and the D.C. Chamber of Commerce — who have already endorsed him. After listing off his endorsements, the council chairman cited his Democratic ward straw poll wins.

“A batting average that high in baseball will get you in the Hall of Fame pretty quickly,” he said.

Gray also cautioned his supporters against becoming complacent.

“We’ve got to work hard for the next two weeks,” he said. “We’ve got to redouble our efforts ... 17 points up today can be 17 points down tomorrow.”

Fenty arrived at One Judiciary Square around 9 a.m., sending his supporters into chants of ‘Four More Years.’ Talking to reporters, the mayor restated his confidence that a closer examination of Gray’s record will turn the tide of the campaign in the final two weeks.

— @kevinrobillard

Monday, Aug. 30, 10:46 a.m.

REPORTERS DISCUSS POST POLL

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty might be down, but reporters who cover the District's primary say he's not out just yet.

"I must say, I'm not counting Adrian Fenty out," said WTOP's Mark Segraves, who appeared on TBD's NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt on Monday morning. "I think you'd be a fool to do so."

Segraves joined Nikita Stewart of the Washington Post and DCist's Martin Austermuhle to discuss a recent Post poll that indicates D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray has opened up a large lead against Fenty, who on Sunday declared himself the underdog in the District's mayoral primary.

"I think all of us who saw the poll numbers were quite surprised," Stewart said. "But this is a study in how to manage a city, how to manage gentrification, and how to manage public relations."

Gray leads Fenty 49 percent to 36 percent among the surveyed registered Democrats, according to the Post's poll numbers. Among likely primary voters, Gray leads Fenty 53 percent to 36 percent.

"We're talking about trying to turn around something that (Fenty) has created, a perception that he has created through his actions and his inactions," says Stewart. "And I'm speaking specifically about not answering questions, not responding to the media. These are just basic public relations 101. He has to turn around two years worth of public perception that he is secretive, that his administration doesn't care about certain residents, in two weeks. But like Mark said, don't count Adrian out. He is an athlete, he's a competitor."

— @slarimer

Monday, Aug. 30, 9:39 a.m.

EARLY VOTERS CAST THEIR BALLOTS

At 6:30 a.m., Joe Bishop arrived at One Judiciary Square. A little more than two hours later, he became the second person in District history to cast a ballot early.

After District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics executive director Rokey Suleman voted first to test the system, Bishop was second to cast his ballot.

“I’m just glad to be participating,” said the 75-year-old Fenty volunteer. Bishop was one of a cadre of Fenty volunteers, many wearing the candidate’s signature green, who made up the bulk of the early arrivals for voting.

One of the early voters, 35-year-old Kevin Toney, introduced himself as a “hype man” for the mayor. Toney, who said he has seven children in D.C. public schools, said the mayor’s education reforms were too important to turn back on.

“He got all the teachers that didn’t have the good education up out of there,” Toney said.

Voting appeared to be running smoothly in the early stages, though Bishop said there were some hiccups. By 9 a.m., dozens of people had already voted, with more voters streaming through the polling pace at a relatively steady pace.

Both candidates had a presence near the polling place, with Fenty appearing to have an advantage in sign-wavers and volunteers. Supporters of Fenty and D.C. Chairman Vince Gray exchanged insults outside the Judiciary Square Metro stop.

“We can not go back to the ‘90s!” a Fenty supporter declared.

Referencing Fenty’s paid corps of campaign workers, Gray’s responded: “Look at all these people waving signs for the mayor for $50 a day. That’s the only job they can get.”

Research shows early voters tend to older and heavily partisan. While no polling released so far has broken down the electorate by age, a Washington Post poll released Sunday showed Gray supporters were more certain of their choice and more enthusiastic about their candidate than backers of the incumbent.

The Post’s poll showed 11 percent of registered Democrats remained undecided, and Fenty will need to capture most of those if he hopes to be re-elected.

The District is using early voting for the first time after the D.C. Council passed a package of election law changes last year. The challenge of implementing the multitude of new rules and regulations has led to fears about how well the elections board will be able to handle what is already an emotionally charged mayoral race.

While early voting starts Monday at One Judiciary Square, four polling places scattered throughout the city are scheduled to open Saturday.

The impact of early voting is hard to pin down, but both campaigns are saying it will be a major part of their strategy. Early voting exploded in popularity during the 2008 presidential campaign. According to expert estimates, around one-third of the electorate voted early two years ago

As of last year, 32 states offered some form of early voting.

— @kevinrobillard

Monday, Aug. 30, 9:15 a.m.

GRAY TO VISIT CITY PAPER MONDAY

In non-early voting news, Vince Gray will be stopping by the Washington City Paper today. Send in your questions, before it is too late!

Adrian Fenty talked Michelle Rhee and party affiliation during his visit to City Paper last week.

— @slarimer

Monday, Aug. 30 7:05 a.m.

RESIDENTS AWAIT START OF EARLY VOTING

Via Twitter, we're starting to see reports of eager early voters waiting to cast their ballots at One Judiciary Square.

From the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics Twitter feed: "A few dedicated souls are already waiting in line for the doors to open. Voting begins at 8:30."

And Adrian Fenty's campaign gives us photographic evidence that one of the first early voters is a Fenty Fan: "Joe Bishop is first in line to vote. Join him at One Judiciary Square. Four more years! http://twitpic.com/2jmsob"

— @slarimer

Monday, Aug. 30, 6:21 a.m.

EARLY VOTING STARTS MONDAY

Morning, Washington! Was their any mayoral primary news over the weekend? Ha. Just kidding. We all know the biggest weekend scoop was more details of Vince Gray's "Sex and the City" obsession.

It's about 6:30 a.m. now, which means early voting in the District is set to begin in about two hours. TBD's @kevinrobillard will be there, attempting to record the earliest of early voters. Monday marks the first time early voting has been used in a District mayoral primary.

Voting at One Judiciary Square begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday and will run to 7 p.m. Four more early voting locations are expected to open Saturday.

— @slarimer