Just spent 2 hours with our Board of elections

[Rick Myers]

Sat and talked with both the GOP and Dem directors at The Board of Elections in Mahoning County in Ohio. They are NOT looking forward to election day and the weeks to follow.

Both agree that if Ohio is not clearly won by 4 to 5%, there WILL be another Florida. Both parties are gearing up for the fight. The GOP will be contesting individual voters at EVERY precinct, and they have already been informed they will only get ONE warning if they attempt to slow the process.

They showed me a photo of the 'butterfly' ballot being used in the Cleveland metro. MY GODDESS!!! It make Fla 2000 look simple. It is a complete disaster waiting to happen. That is were the fight will start...

Both officials admit that short of a landslide, we will NOT know the outcome until Dec. 12 or later...

And they both asked me to be an official observer on election Day. They use an ES&S system, and I've acted as an observer before...

Both sides agree Blackwell has really screwed the pooch!!!

[Grillymom]

1. That sounds awful!

I'm not sure how crazy things will be here. I'm in Delaware County, a Republican County. However, I do know that the Dems have gotten tons of people registered to vote. If we can get this county down to a slim 55/45 Bush victory that'll be a huge shift in our local politics!

My husband is volunteering, he's an attorney, at the polls all day. Mostly to make sure that voters' rights aren't violated.
Good luck on election day!

[mongo]

2. "slowing the process"

Who gets to make that decision? Who gets to throw a GOP challenger out of the polling place?

[Rick Myers]

4. The GOP people have been told they will get ONE warning

Then the pollworkers or travelling BOE members will call the police to have them removed. Even the GOP folks on the BOE are worried!!!

[AngryOldDem]

3. I almost think

that they WANT things to be fouled up.

I am so sick of this shit. Florida should be the textbook case of what NOT to do, but it seems like everyone's using that as a playbook.

Set the system up to fail -- set the stage for a new form of government. Brilliant, simply brilliant.

Good luck.

[mongo]

5. Perhaps we do need to tune-up our democracy.

I used to believe in the electoral college and the way the presidential election works, because if it was just the popular vote, the issues of people in a few big cities would carry much more weight than all of the rest of America.

Now I'm not so sure. I don't think the system is going to fail, but I hope that this election motivates people to get involved. The most disturbing trend is black box voting, with no paper trail. The IRS makes me save my receipts - shouldn't we require the government to provide us with an election that can be verified?