Thirteen hours today I sat and watched and watched and watched. Why …what did I see? Sounds like the beginning of a good nursery rhyme but this story isn’t one the kiddies would find very captivating. However this is a historical change to our method of voting never before seen. Hear what it was like being a “Poll Observer” for the Republican Party in a largely Democratic voting precinct.

Basically a lot of people voted and that isn’t a very likely candidate for the next sweeps week reality show. Some people had problems with their addresses (11 out of 288) or with ID (also 11 out of 288) and were given a provision ballot (one that requires a later inspection at the County Board of Elections Office). There was no blatant fraud that I witnessed. There were no issues with people claiming to be a person who died during the last year nor people coming in to vote who had been issued an absentee ballot (double voting - felony). There were some blatant Kerry groups getting too close to the polling areas and reports of 527 groups inappropriately “electioneering”. What that means is that groups like Acorn, ACT, and Moveon.org were found distributing Kerry literature, wearing Kerry adverts, approaching voters trying to get to the polls …and more of the same in areas that are to be kept free of such things so as not to intefere with voters who disagree with the ideologies and potlitical views of such groups. So NO voter will be “disenfranchised”. Still hopefully Ohio was civil and showed that you can be passionate and controversial while still getting along with your neighbor. I suspect a lot of out-of-state political motivated groups will make the headlines this week. There are tons of lawyers preparing for the Mother of All Voter Disenfranchisement Lawsuits here in the heartland. Say it with me “disenfranchisement”. Heh …Julie Andrews sing out loud. …”even though the sound of it is really quite attrocious” …

Media maroons get the facts straight this election …PLEASE! No, Ohio is not Florida. Our Secretary of State won’t be accused of gaudy makeup application. Ken Blackwell good luck on the road to filling the shoes of Katherine Harris.

Tomorrow, once I’ve gotten a chance to get some sleep and a better chance of writing clearer strings of thoughts, I’ll tell you about the High School Social Studies teacher who lashed at me for my role while I helped insure the legitimacy of the vote at the polls in his school. Are all High School teachers still nerds?

My hope was the freedom is preserved in our demonstration of democracy in action.