County Officials Worried About Fisticuffs

Deschutes County (Oregon) officials are posting sheriffs to keep an eye on the people keeping an eye on the vote-counting, fearing that name-calling will expand to flying fists in this hotly contested election.

Can’t we all just get along?

Early Voter Turnout

Greetings from central Texas. Early voting has been very popular this year, with some two million Texans voting early in the 15 largest counties according to Austin NBC affiliate KXAN. Despite the high turnout, Texas Secretary of State Geoff Connor speaking in the Austin American-Statesman predicts an average turnout by the end of the day on November 2. Connor says there are 13.1 million voters registered for this election which is 82 percent of the state’s population. In the 2000 election, 85 percent of the population was registered. Historically, the percentage of Texans voting averages 40 percent. Despite the past numbers, officials are hopeful that we’ll see close to 60% of registered voters voting this year.

Travis County, home to the state capitol of Austin, saw 217,000 early voters. Williamson County, just north of Travis (and my home) had 78,000 early voters. The Secretary of State’s website lists the early voting numbers for the 15 largest counties. Harris County, home of Houston, had a 22.55% turnout. Dallas County saw 28% early vote and Collin County, also in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, had the largest percentage with 41.57% of the population taking advantage of early voting.

Colorado Introduction

Hello from the swing state of Colorado! These are some of our key issues in this election:

President - We are considered a swing state though the polls now show President Bush leading by a comfortable margin. (Colorado polls have been notoriously unreliable these last couple election cycles.)

Senate: Coors vs Salazar - It’s been a close race between Pete Coors & Ken Salazar for the seat vacated by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Cambell. Polls show the Democrat, Ken Salazar, is leading.

Amendment 36 - Would divide up the state’s electoral votes based on a percentage of the vote instead of the current winner-take-all system. This is expected to go down in flames.

Amendment 37 - Would require utilities to generate a certain percentage of their power from renewable resources. There has been very little organized opposition to this proposed amendment.

Referendum 4a - FasTracks. This would increase sales taxes in the Denver metropolitan area .4 percent to fund a $4.7 billion mass transit expansion. This is expected to pass as opponents to this referendum were heavily outspent. The two Denver papers were split in their recommendations on this referendum.

More to come.

Democrats Accuse Republicans Of Trying to Block Thousands of Votes

The Oregonian is reporting that Republicans have asked the state to set aside ballots from newly-registered voters who did not provide proof of identification when registering.

Oregon has a unique vote-by-mail system where every ballot is a mail-in ballot. We are now fourteen days into an eighteen-day election period. More than 200,000 new voters have registered in Oregon since May, with many of them under 25 and living in the very liberal Portland area.

I’m one of them, and when I registered, the form instructed me to Xerox my driver’s license (which has my old Illinois address on it) and also something with my current address (like a bill) to send in with my registration to verify my identity. Apparently some people haven’t done that, and Republicans want the state to double-check and make sure those people are really who they say they are. Democrats are objecting, saying that the threat that lying is a Class C felony should be enough, and because the GOP is only doing this in traditionally liberal Multnomah County it is a partisan trick. Developing story.

Sooner State races to watch: U. S. Senate, Legislature, referenda

Hello from Tulsa, Oklahoma. President Bush is polling above 60% and expected to take Oklahoma’s seven electoral votes, but we have plenty of hot races down the ballot — a U. S. Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of Republican Don Nickles and several controversial constitutional amendments dealing with marriage, a lottery, casino gambling, and a tobacco tax. The Senate race, pitting Republican former Congressman Tom Coburn against Democrat Congressman Brad Carson, is a key race in the battle for control of the Senate.

2004 is the first year that incumbent legislators will be affected by the term limits initiative passed in 1988. There are 36 open seats in our 101-seat lower house. The current makeup of the State House: Democrats have 51 seats, Republicans have 47, with three vacancies (held by two Ds and one R after the last election). A poll in 17 competitive House districts by SoonerPoll.com shows the Republicans leading in enough races to pick up seven seats and a majority of 54, but all but one of those pickups are within the margin of error. Democrats have held the majority in the State House since 1923. Republicans have been close to a takeover since 2000 - they have high hopes of finally reaching the goal this year. Republicans would have to pick up eight seats to take over the State Senate — a longer shot, but not out of the question.

The Oklahoma State Election Board will be posting results here as they come in from the counties. Unless there are problems, all precincts generally report by 9 p.m. CST.

Thanks to the Command Post for the opportunity to report from Oklahoma on Election Day!

Michigan Coverage

I am honored to be a correspondent from the great state of Michigan.
Michigan is one of the battle ground states and is currently governed by a Democratic Governor, but is nearly a dead tie in the latest polls. Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry have spent a great deal of time in our state this year. President Bush even visited my hometown of Marquette, the first President to visit the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in almost 100 years.
Tuesday’s weather
A possible deterrent to voters….High of 52 with an 80% chance for rain.
Two Proposals on the Michigan Ballot as well.

Paris 2004 is bipartisan!

Good evening from Paris. It’s pretty cold here.
Paris 2004 is definitively bipartisan. Democrats Abroad France and Republicans Abroad France will be holding, together, a bipartisan Election Night party at a restaurant in the Champs Elysees area. We received a beautiful invitation with, printed on it, a flag, a donkey and an elephant. Maybe I’m a bit naive, but I just loved it! Another bipartisan party will take place at historical American watering hole, maybe the oldest one, Harry’s Bar. I’ll report from both places.
Good luck to my 85 fellow correspondents!

Welcome To "Big Sky" Election Coverage!

Greetings all — this is Dave, from Montana. I know most of you think that we’ve got nothing but militia-men and Unabombers here, but believe me — plenty of good, honest people call Montana home. On the ballot for Tuesday: President, Governor, US Representative, and a few initiatives that are being hotly debated. I’ll do my best to keep you updated as Election Day 2004 rolls on!

Release The Hounds!

We’ve opened the 2004 page to our special Election Day correspondents … 86 citizens around the US (and the world) who will post in this space news about state and national elections, in their own words, as it happens.

Welcome them as their posts appear … visit their blogs should they have them … and enjoy the show. We’ll keep their permissions open until at least November 3rd.

(And if your one of the folks who signed up to be an ED contributor but haven’t gotten your welcome email with login instructions, we might have gotten your email wrong … email me or Michele and we’ll set things straight.)

Zogby's Ten Battleground States Update 10-31

Reuters reports today’s results of Zogby’s polling in 10 battleground states. This tracking polling which began on Sunday will run each day through November 1:

Kerry leads in Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while Bush leads in Colorado, Nevada and Ohio, according to the Reuters/Zogby state polls.

The state of New Mexico is deadlocked at 49 percent each, one day after Bush held a nine-point advantage.

From California Yankee.

Election Day Feature: Electoral College Tracker

We’ve set up a graphic tracker for the Electoral College vote counts over at the top of the right-hand column. We’ll update the counts as the states come in … and remember: 270 to win.

The current projection over at Election Projection? Bush 286, Kerry 252.

And at Electoral Vote? Kerry 283, Bush 246.

Election Day Feature: CP Breaking News Alerts!

We’ll be sending out Command Post Breaking News Alerts as things happen on November 2nd, including alerts each time a state is called for one candidate or another. To sign up and receive Command Post Breaking News Alerts, go here.

Election Coverage Update

We’re ramping up our election day coverage, and soon will be opening the 2004 page to 86 citizen journalists who have signed up to cover the election from their city, state, and in some cases, country.

To help our readers navigate what will certainly be a large volume of news, we’ve added categories for each of the 50 states, which supplement the categories we already have for individual candidates (to see all the posts for a single category, click the category you want over in the “Search The Post” section of the left-hand column). I’ve also updated the template for this page so the category precedes the title of the post … as “Misc.” does here … so you’ll be able to tell at a glance from which state each post is coming.

We’re really excited … Michele and I think this will be very cool … and we’re thankful to those who have signed up to help us make this the first truly citizen-blogged, citizen-covered election.

And thanks for reading the Post!

"Tora Bora: What Really Happened?"

CNN’s terrorism analyst Peter Bergen:

Votes From the Dead to Count in Election

AP: Votes From the Dead to Count in Election

In what would be her last conscious act, 90-year-old Trixie Porter gripped a pen in her weak, trembling hand, checked the candidates of her choice and scrawled a squiggled signature on her absentee ballot.

Within an hour, the petite woman who had been suffering from heart problems lay back in her hospital bed, closed her eyes and never woke up. Her ballot arrived at her local elections board two days later, Oct. 5 — the day she died.

“We commented that day that it probably won’t count,” said daughter Cheryl McConnell. “But she went to her grave not knowing any different. It counted with her.”

An untold number of ballots like Porter’s will indeed be counted because of the haphazard and cumbersome process of enforcing laws in many states to weed out the absentee votes of those who die by Election Day.

Nader Could Still Impact Key States

The Los Angeles Times reports that even though Nader is only on the ballot in 34 states, he may have an impact because some of those states are still competitive.

According to the Times, the thirteen potentially competitive states in which Nader might impact the outcome include Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

From California Yankee.

Daily Tracking Polls Tied

Reuters reports that President Bush and Kerry and are tied at 48 percent in the latest three-day Reuters/Zogby International Tracking Poll Kerry led Bush 47-46 percent on Saturday.

ABC News/Washington Post Tracking Poll and the Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll also show the race tied at 48 percent.

From California Yankee.

The Choice

Updating a previous post, comes this video from the Daily Recycler.

Drink and Keyboard warnings are in force, I say again, Drink and Keyboard warnings are in force.

Fear And Loathing ... And Command Post?

Hunter S. Thompson in Rolling Stone:

The genetically vicious nature of presidential campaigns in America is too obvious to argue with, but some people call it fun, and I am one of them. Election Day — especially a presidential election — is always a wild and terrifying time for politics junkies, and I am one of those, too. We look forward to major election days like sex addicts look forward to orgies. We are slaves to it.

Wonder if he reads this page. Regardless, much more of HST’s views on this election in the Rolling Stone article, including Haliburton, Nazis, and more.

Did Kerry take direction from North Vietnamese Communists?

On October 22, 2004, Swift Veterans and POWs for Truth researchers Troy Jenkins and Tom Wyld located two Vietnamese communist documents in the archives of the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University, in the Douglas Pike Collection. Douglas Pike was a leading authority on the Vietnam War who collected over 2 million pages of original documents now archived at the Vietnam Center. James Reckner, Ph.D., Director of the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech, verifies that the documents in the Pike collection are original and authentic. The Circular and the Directive are listed as items numbered 2150901039b and 2150901041 respectively.

The fifth paragraph of this document makes clear that the Vietnamese communists were utilizing for their propaganda purposes the activities of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The protest described as occurring from April 19 through April 22, 1971 coincides directly with the dates of Dewey Canyon III, the Washington, DC, protest led by John Kerry, during which John Kerry’s testimony before Senator Fulbright’s Foreign Relations Committee was a televised centerpiece. The description of the protest activities in the Directive even include the “return their medals” ceremony in which John Kerry and other VVAW members threw their medals and/or ribbons toward the steps of the US Capitol, with several shouting threats of violence against their government as they did so.

[…]

Another key discussion in the documents reveals the degree to which the Vietnamese communists were working with and through the PCPJ (People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice. The Circular, immediately after disclosing how the communist delegations to the Paris Peace talks were being used to guide the US antiwar movement, stresses the importance of the PCPJ to these efforts:

Of the US antiwar movements, the two most important ones are: The PCPJ ((the People’s Committee for Peace and Justice)) and the NPAC ((National Peace Action Committee)). These two movements have gathered much strength and staged many demonstrations. The PCPJ is the most important. It maintains relations with us.

(emphasis in original)

Further reporting of this research is available in this New York Sun article.

::Update:: As pointed out by Digger, InTheBullpen has an interview with Troy Jenkins on this topic (permalink busted, scroll down).

Photog Sues Sinclair Broadcasting

Photographer and documentary filmmaker George Butler has sued Sinclair Broadcasting and Red, White and Blue Productions to stop the sale and distribution of Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal, a controversial documentary critical of presidential challenger John Kerry. Butler alleges unauthorized use of his photographs and film footage in Stolen Honor.

Keep Reading at PDN

Moore Cameras to Focus on Polls in Ohio, Florida

From The Australian :

US filmmaker Michael Moore plans to have hundreds of cameras outside polling places in Ohio and Florida on election day to watch for attempts to suppress voter turnout.

The director of the anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 announced today that a total of 1200 professional and non-professional cameramen, filmmakers and videographers would take their cameras to polling places in the two presidential battleground states, especially in minority communities.

“I’m putting those who intend to suppress the vote on notice: Voter intimidation and suppression will not be tolerated,” Moore said.

Moore, who was in Columbus, Ohio for a rally today, planned visits to Ohio and Florida on election day, his publicist Terri Hardesty said.

New Democrat 527 Video

Another not-serious look at the US Elections. At least, I think it’s not-serious. You can never tell, when OBL is on tape channelling Michael Moore, parotting parts of the Democrat Platform, and pleading to “live and let live”.

A Minneapolis-based 527 group GeorgeTheMenace, has just produced a new video which they hope will counter the SwiftVet ones. The one showing hundreds of Veterans and ex-POWs of all party affilliations, all united against John F Kerry.

The video, which if taken at face value is extremely damaging to George Bush, is available in 2 formats:
QuickTime [800k]
RealPlayer[1.4 M]

Bush supporters will no doubt claim that the video has been “doctored” by Democrats, however the GeorgeTheMenace group hopes to put in on TV “straight”, according to their (satirical) website.

No doubt some people will believe it, but they probably wouldn’t be voting for Bush even before seeing it. Others will see it as an act of Democrat desperation, but they probably wouldn’t be voting for Kerry anyway.

Hat Tip : Captain’s Quarters

Zogby's Ten Battleground States Update 10-30

Reuters reports Saturday’s results of Zogby’s polling in 10 battleground states. This tracking polling which began on Sunday will run each day through November 1:

Kerry reclaimed small leads in Michigan and Iowa, and also led Bush in Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Bush had the edge in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, and expanded his lead in the showdown state of Ohio from one to five points.

UDATE: I just noticed that the Headline incorrectly said 10-29. It should have been 10-30 and has been corrected.

From California Yankee.

"Reporter saw insurgents loot Qaqaa arms depot"

From IHT:

See also ABC News: Video Suggests Explosives Disappeared After U.S. Took Control, “[KSTP] video may be linked to missing explosives in Iraq” and Al Qaqaa roundup.

From 10/06/04’s Outside Baghdad, lawlessness haunts a small Iraqi town:

Walter Cronkite Opines on OBL Tape

From CNN :

So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I’m a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Breaking For President Bush

Reuters reports that President Bush’s lead over Kerry has widened to 6 percent among likely voters in Newsweek’s poll.

From California Yankee.

Kerry Has One-Point Lead In Reuters/Zogby Daily Tracking Poll

Reuters reports that Kerry moved into a one-point lead over President Bush in the latest Reuters/Zogby poll released on Saturday.

From California Yankee.

Kerry on the OBL Video

From an Op-Ed in the New York Times (with all opinion and editorial content carefully removed, leaving just the facts) . Kerry’s remarks concerning the OBL video :

On Milwaukee television, … “He didn’t choose to use American forces to hunt down Osama bin Laden. He outsourced the job.” Kerry continued …, “I am absolutely confident I have the ability to make America safer.”
[…]
Back in December 2001, when bin Laden was apparently hiding in Tora Bora, Kerry supported the strategy of using Afghans to hunt him down. He told Larry King that our strategy “is having its impact, and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively, and we should continue to do it that way.”

Foreign Views of OBL Video : An Attempt to Influence US Elections

From The Australian :

From Correspondents in Paris :

Experts around the world called the videotape from Osama bin Laden a heavy-handed attempt to influence the US election just days before the vote, while warning against dismissing it as just propaganda.

“It’s a very crude but sinister attempt to try to influence the presidential election,” said Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

“The US authorities must take the threat of violence seriously,” he said in an interview with the BBC shortly after the tape aired last night.
[…]
Montasser el-Zayat, a Cairo-based lawyer who defends Islamic radicals, said the video amounted to an “unprecedented attack on (US President George W.) Bush at a very critical time, before the US elections” on November 2.
[..]
Diaa Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on extremist Muslim militants, said bin Laden was trying to influence Americans “to give (Democratic presidential candidate John) Kerry their votes, not Bush”.

However, Mr Wilkinson told the BBC it was “too early” to predict whether it would help either candidate.

“It is certainly a more flagrant form of propaganda than we have seen before in relation to the American public, but it hasn’t got a hope of influencing American foreign policy,” he said.

“Whoever wins the US election will continue to wage war on al-Qaida and its affiliates … whoever wins the election is unlikely to cut and run from Iraq because they know that policy would be seen as a defeat.”

British newspapers reflected on the dramatic timing of the message, released four days before the US presidential election. “Bin Laden shocks US” was Saturday’s headline in the Financial Times. “The genie is back in a swirl of dust”, said The Times.

“Bin Laden has become to Bush what Saddam Hussein was to the president’s father - a gloating survivor of US foreign policy,” wrote The Times’ Chris Ayres.

On websites devoted to extremist Muslim comment, contributors reacted with glee to the tape, saying it was proof bin Laden was alive and a “slap” at America.

bin Laden Tape Stirs Up Campaigns

The campaigns react to the tapes and to each other:

Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry vowed to “hunt down and destroy” Osama bin Laden if he is elected and criticised President George Bush for failing to capture the al-Qaeda leader who threatened new attacks in a videotape aired on Friday.

[…].

In his formal statement Kerry said: “In response to this tape of Osama bin Laden, let me just make it clear, crystal clear. As Americans we are united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists.”

“They are barbarians, I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes.”

[…]

“I regret that when George Bush had the opportunity in Afghanistan at Tora Bora, he didn’t use our forces to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden. He outsourced to the war lords.”

Bush reacted to Kerry’s words:

“This is the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking….It is especially shameful in light of the new tape by America’s enemy.”

Bush vowed after the tape aired that “Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country.”

Zogby's Ten Battleground States Update 10-29

Reuters reports today’s results of Zogby’s polling in 10 battleground states. This tracking polling which began on Sunday will run each day through November 1:

Bush led in six of the 10 battleground states being polled. He held slim leads in Ohio and Colorado and held his edge in Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico and Nevada.

Kerry took a slight lead in Florida and led in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the two candidates battled for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Zogby said Kerry had solidified his support among women, Catholics, singles, Hispanics and 18- to 24-year-olds, but had slipped slightly among black voters to about 82 percent.

From California Yankee.

"In final hours, Bush mailings display images of burning World Trade Center"

Pictures of the mailing are here:

State Department Tried to Stop Airing of Bin Laden Tape

The Associated Press reports that the State Department asked the government of Qatar not to broadcast the Osama bin Laden videotape.

From California Yankee.

Bin Laden Accuses Bush of Deceiving Americans

Reuters reports that Osama bin Laden appeared on Al Jazeera television on Saturday accusing President Bush of deceiving the American people:

In an address just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election, bin Laden also said the U.S. administration resembled “corrupt” Arab governments.

More details in the GWoT section.

From California Yankee.

U.S. Forces Removed Iraq Explosives From Al-Qaqaa

Bloomberg reports that U.S. forces removed as much as 250 tons of ordnance from al-Qaqaa:

Major Austin Pearson, a 3rd Infantry Division officer who led operations at the al-Qaqaa site, said at a Pentagon briefing that he removed explosives from bunkers that were open and accessible. He didn’t see any seals that the International Atomic Energy Agency had placed on bunkers with more than 350 tons of explosives.

“My mission was to minimize the exposure of U.S. forces by taking out what was readily available,” said Pearson, who was at al-Qaqaa on April 13, 2003. “I did not see any IAEA seals. I was not looking for that.”

Munitions Issue Dwarfs the Big Picture

The Washington Post offers some main stream media perspective on the 377 tons of Iraqi explosives reported to have gone missing:

U.S. military commanders estimated last fall that Iraqi military sites contained 650,000 to 1 million tons of explosives, artillery shells, aviation bombs and other ammunition. The Bush administration cited official figures this week showing about 400,000 tons destroyed or in the process of being eliminated. That leaves the whereabouts of more than 250,000 tons unknown.

Against that background, this week’s assertions by Sen. John F. Kerry’s campaign about the few hundred tons said to have vanished from Iraq’s Qaqaa facility have struck some defense experts as exaggerated.

“There is something truly absurd about focusing on 377 tons of rather ordinary explosives, regardless of what actually happened at al Qaqaa,” Anthony H. Cordesman, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in an assessment yesterday. “The munitions at al Qaqaa were at most around 0.06 percent of the total.”

[. . .]

Although invading U.S. forces never secured the facility, defense officials have disputed the notion that such a large quantity of explosives could have been transported without notice by the U.S. military.

Bolstering the possibility that the munitions were removed before U.S. troops arrived, defense officials say, is the Hussein government’s history of moving weapons to elude air attack. An official also said intelligence photos show lots of activity at Qaqaa before U.S. forces reached the site.

Dems, GOP working to capture early voters

AP: Dems, GOP working to capture early voters

Americans are casting early ballots in droves this year, and their reasons are as varied as their politics: Some can’t wait to register their opinions. Some like the convenience. Some just want to be left alone.

For others, it’s all about making sure their votes are properly recorded.

In New Jersey’s Somerset County, elections administrator Janice Hoffman says she’s seeing more people make the extra effort to personally walk their ballots in.

“No dangling chads on mine!” a satisfied Barry Burke pronounced after voting electronically this week in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Whatever the voters’ motivations, Democrats and Republicans alike are tracking their balloting day by day and county by county, hoping to turn the early-voting trend to their advantage. The big question for George W. Bush and John Kerry, whose campaigns have worked tirelessly to turn out early voters, is whether they are locking in new supporters or simply getting the same old voters out to the polls a little earlier.

“There’s a basic rule here: More is better,” said Charlie Baker, captain of the Democrats’ early vote operation. “We are seeing, in a number of states, significantly higher vote-by-mail and early-voting numbers than historically has been the case and that has to be a good thing for the Democrats.”

Bush, Kerry Tied In Reuters/Zogby Daily Tracking Poll

Bloomberg reports that President Bush and Kerry are deadlocked at 47 percent each in the latest Reuters/Zogby Daily Tracking Poll.

From California Yankee.

Appeals court: GOP can't challenge voters

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

A federal appeals court today upheld a court order barring Ohio’s Republican Party from challenging the validity of 23,000 new voter registrations.

The state GOP contends the registrations may be fraudulent because many of the new voters appear to have invalid addresses. Democrats say the pre-election challenges are unfair and are intended to discourage voters from going to the polls Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott blocked the challenges Wednesday, but the GOP appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit ruled this morning that Dlott’s order should stand.

The judges said they appreciated the concern about potential voter fraud, but they believed there was not adequate time before the election to hold fair hearings to determine the validity of the registrations.

Confusion reigns over Ohio voting

From The Plain Dealer:

The closer Ohio comes to the most contentious election in its history, the more confusion reigns about what will happen Tuesday in the state’s polling places.

First, state Republicans appealed a federal judge’s ruling barring six county election boards, including Cuyahoga’s, from conducting hearings to review the legitimacy of thousands of new voter registrations. But if the judge’s ruling is overturned, it’s not clear whether enough time remains to hold the hearings before Election Day.

Meanwhile, several counties unaffected by the judge’s ruling moved ahead with review hearings. Dozens of angry voters showed up to defend their registrations in Summit County, and the board eventually dismissed nearly 1,000 objections filed by local Republicans. And in Lake County, all but a handful of nearly 100 objections were dismissed.

Also, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has issued an order governing the presence of “challengers” inside Ohio polling places.

State law allows political parties to place representatives inside the polls to challenge the legitimacy of voters’ registrations before they are issued ballots. Although the law says each group can have one challenger per polling place, Blackwell said each group can have one challenger per precinct - meaning some voters could see a crowd at the many polling places serving more than one precinct.

The dirty tricks campaign continues. The Lake County sheriff fielded complaints about a flier purportedly issued by the county election board. The flier, which is bogus, tells those registered to vote by the NAACP, by Democratic campaigns or certain progressive groups that their registrations are invalid.

Another flier, distributed to 30,000 public housing residents in Cleveland, urges them to vote for a proposed school tax because it won’t cost them anything - angering many who would see their property taxes rise if the levy passes.

Looking in The Wrong Spot : IAEA Defends Report

From Reuters via the ABC comes some data that makes the whole mess of videos, on-the-spot reports and so onabout Al Qaaqaa moot.

Iraq told the IAEA the explosives at the sprawling Al Qaqaa military facility had gone missing through theft and looting due to lack of security after the US-led invasion.

But ABC News (America) reports that confidential IAEA documents show that on January 14, 2003, UN inspectors found just over three tons of one type of explosive, RDX.

That inspection was conducted before the war began.

“The bulk of the RDX was stored at another site that was under Al Qaqaa’s jurisdiction,” IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

She says that the report seen by ABC only covers the Al Qaqaa site itself.

The second site, Al Mahaweel, is roughly 45 kilometres from Al Qaqaa.

“They (Iraq) considered that site part of Al Qaqaa and that’s how it was always declared,” she said.

“IAEA inspectors inventoried that site on January 15, 2003,” the day after the Al Qaqaa inspection reported by ABC.
[…]
However, Ms Fleming says it is possible that the Iraqi report on missing explosives overstated the amount of RDX by 10 tons because it did not take account of an earlier Iraqi statement that that amount had been used for civilian purposes.

So the reason why the US Army, NBC, and so on said they didn’t find any RDX amongst the other explosives at Al Qaqaa was… because there weren’t any there, and hadn’t been since at least January 14. But the figures for the other site, over 20 miles away(!) didn’t take into account that the Iraqis had broken the seals and removed some of it before the war.

US Electoral Litigation - An Overseas View

From the Times of London, via The Australian :

Mary Poppins and Dick Tracy are giving election officials sleepless nights as the US heads towards what is likely to be the most litigious presidential poll in history.

The pair are among a cast of fictional characters who have tried to register to vote next Tuesday, clearly as a prelude to attempted fraud.

But they are only the tip of an iceberg which at best threatens to delay the result beyond November 2, and at worst will cripple the credibility of the winner.

Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said the result could be “an election that would make Florida in 2000 look like a picnic”.

Already more than 40 lawsuits have been filed in several swing states, including Florida, challenging the registration of new voters and the procedures for counting the ballot.

There are concerns about an urgent shortage of poll workers, and whether the volunteers, whose average age is 72, will be able to explain to voters how the new touch-screen ballot machines work.

The worries have sparked warnings that the first US presidential election of the 21st century, and by far the most expensive yet, is heading for disaster.

The tense wait has introduced a new phrase into the US political lexicon — the “margin of litigation” — which refers to the percentage of the vote that divides the two main candidates. The smaller the margin is, and the closer the vote in the decisive electoral college, the more likely it is that the initial result will be legally challenged.
[…]
The main problem is the new provisional ballots, introduced by the 2002 Help America Vote Act. They allow people to cast a ballot even if they find their name is not on the registration list when they turn up to vote on the day.

But those votes are not counted immediately. And the act gives no indication about how they should be verified and when they should be counted.

There is one outcome that might avoid a legal crisis, and presidential historian Robert Dallek, for one, is confident it will occur — he expects a clear result. “My sense is the election is not going to be as close as people think.”

Some Numbers concerning the Electoral Roll

Australia has compulsory voting, and a rather more complex election system where you have to state your order of preference of the candidates.

Some numbers from the recent election may be of relevance to those thinking about reform of the US electoral system, and purging bad data from the electoral rolls.

From The Australian :

A pointer to the numbers who vote only because they have to, or use their ballot to make a political protest, is the 21per cent of informal voters who left ballot papers blank in 2001 and the 6per cent who wrote slogans on them. But the AEC[Australian Electoral Commission] says some ballots may be left blank because people forget after first completing their Senate ballot or because they do not understand the voting system and would rather not vote at all than risk making a mistake.

Then there are those who do not vote at all, which is about 10 per cent of Australians older than 18. They include about 5 per cent of those on the electoral roll. After the 2001 election, the AEC scanned the roll and sent letters to almost 427,000 people asking why they had not voted. In most cases, it accepted the explanations, which included being overseas, in hospital or dead. About 40,000 people paid the $20 fine for failing to vote.

The other 5 per cent of non-voters are not on the roll, with the figure highest among the young. The AEC is trying to track them down by checking data at motor registries and Centrelink. Believe it or not, many 18-year-olds are more keen to get their driver’s licences and pick up their welfare payments than they are to get on the electoral roll.

Kerry already making Cabinet selections

TIMES ONLINE: Kerry to opt for the senator who copied Kinnock

THE man whose presidential ambitions were destroyed when he plagiarised Neil Kinnock is set to become America’s chief foreign policymaker if John Kerry is elected President next Tuesday.
Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware has been asked by Mr Kerry to become Secretary of State in a Democratic administration, according to Kerry campaign aides. Mr Biden, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the past four years, ran for President in 1988. His campaign ended abruptly when it was revealed that a key element of his stump speech had been lifted directly from Mr Kinnock’s general election speeches in 1987.

But Mr Biden has since emerged as a leading foreign policy figure in the Democratic party and is expected to take the job offered by Mr Kerry unless political factors intervene. Were the Democrats to retake control of the Senate, he might prefer to remain as a lawmaker, but those who know him think that unlikely.

Mr Biden’s possible elevation is one of the thousands of permutations circulating in Washington in the final days before the presidential election. If Mr Biden does go to the State Department it will be a disappointment for Richard Holbrooke, the UN Ambassador during the Clinton Administration and the architect of the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in 1995. Mr Holbrooke has lobbied hard for the Secretary of State ’s job. But in what will be seen as both an effort to conciliate the famously self-confident Mr Holbrooke, and as a signal change from Bush administration policy, Mr Kerry is likely to offer him the job of special Middle East peace co-ordinator, senior Democrats say.

Mr Kerry plans to announce both appointments soon after the election as a sign of the urgency he assigns to mending diplomatic fences.

Muslims cite betrayal by Bush

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Muslims cite betrayal by Bush

Syed Ahmed voted for George W. Bush in 2000. But he won’t this year.

Ahmed, an engineering consultant and one-time delegate to the state Republican convention, said he believes the president has taken the country in the wrong direction.

Like many Muslims around the country who overwhelmingly supported Bush in the last presidential election, Ahmed now appears to be backing Dem-ocratic candidate John Kerry, according to several polls.

Muslim-Americans, who often identify themselves as fiscal and social conservatives, would appear to be a natural constituency for Bush. But when it comes to civil liberties, especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, their support is changing.

Muslims are disenchanted with the Bush administration for its support of the Patriot Act, which has left them feeling betrayed, several Muslims leaders said.

“The Patriot Act has many nonpatriotic provisions in it,” Ahmed said.

Political Human Sacrifice takes a shocking turn

As previously discussed, talk jocks John & Ken (KFI AM 640 - Los Angeles) are conducting a “Political Human Sacrifice” of two Californian congressmen. They’re encouraging their listeners to vote those congressmen out of office because of their support for massive illegal immigration. The congressmen are Joe Baca (Democrat) and David Dreier (Republican).

In a shocking development, John & Ken have received a federal complaint filed by the Dreier Campaign (Dreier site here) and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The complaint is relating to the McCain-Feingold law; although a copy of the complaint is not yet publicly available, apparently one of the charges involves John & Ken encouraging the crowd at a Political Human Sacrifice rally to shout “Fire Dreier!”

The L.A. Times reportedly interviewed John & Ken today, and, as they’ve appeared on several national news shows in the past, I would imagine this will receive national attention.

John & Ken are encouraging all their listeners and anyone else to contact the National Republican Congressional Committee; their contact information is here.

Dreier’s opponent is Cynthia Matthews. The district includes most of the San Gabriel Valley foothill communities. A map is here.

UPDATE: KFI producer and blogger Justin Levine comments here.

Red Sox Pitching Ace Curt Schilling To Campaign With President Bush

The Union Leader reports Curt Schilling will appear with Bush at his campaign stops in Manchester and Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Friday.

Schilling urged viewers to vote for Bush on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program:

Schilling made the unexpected endorsement of the President on the ABC program just as he and his wife, Shonda, wrapped up an interview with host Charles Gibson.

“And make sure you tell everybody to vote,” Schilling said Gibson, “and vote Bush next week.”

From California Yankee.