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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
03.11.2008
The View From Your Polling Place

A lot of you are voting early this year--as many as 9.8 million ballots have already been cast in the 31 states that allow early voting in person. With the massive numbers of newly-registered voters, your local polling place could be quite a scene as early voting continues, and there's no telling what election day will bring.

We'd like to know what it looks like out there. Are people camping out for Georgia's four-hour lines? Did Florida's newly extended voting hours ameliorate voters, or is it getting unruly? We've set up a new feature we're calling "The View From Your Polling Place" as a way for you to share photos and stories from your local ballot stations.

When you head out to the polls, snap a photo and send it to us at viewfromthepolls@gmail.com. We'll post the most interesting, most unusual, and funniest right here on The Plank. Include any backstory, explanation, or anecdotes along with the photo for us to post as well.

--Max Fisher

Posted: Monday, November 03, 2008 11:30 AM with 8 comment(s)

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psantillana said:

October 29, 2008 3:56 PM

cspencef said:

I am shocked--shocked!!--that cheating might happen in a presidential election...

October 29, 2008 4:25 PM

Rhubarbs said:

Hey, TNR editors, could you please do the world a favor and do a real story exposing the rightwing's scare stories about Democratic vote fraud for the lies they are? Game through what meaningful multiple-voting fraud of the type alleged would require, in terms of expense and manpower and simple logistics to accomplish, from recruiting the fake voters to registering them in advance to paying and feeding and transporting them, and the amount of staff required to organize it. Talk to campaign organizers and event planners and bus rental companies to find out if it's even possible to mount such an operation, and if so at what expense. And then talk to former prosecutors about the impossibility of keeping a criminal conspiracy involving at least 20,000 participants a secret.

Factor in recent court rulings about the validity of registrations and whether they could make it in any way easier to carry out a multiple-vote scheme. (They don't.) And maybe even explore the ways despots and juntas actually do steal elections -- they almost never attempt multiple-vote schemes, due to the obvious difficulty, expense, and detectability.

October 29, 2008 4:27 PM

psantillana said:

What Rhubarbs said, and do it before election day. Get Noam to do it; he's obviously having some kind of nervous breakdown and needs to do something productive with his time. I know I am/do.

October 29, 2008 4:40 PM

strabka said:

Agree with Rhubarbs & psantillana, and how about looking at some of Democracy Now!'s investigation of vote suppression, and Mark Crispin Miller's (former TNR writer) look at vote stealing in the 2004 election?

www.democracynow.org/.../votes

October 29, 2008 5:00 PM

satyendra said:

Hey, Rhubarbs, could you explore this topic as a citizen journalist?

November 3, 2008 11:54 AM

satyendra said:

Psantillana, I followed your link.  It's appalling how the elections workers blame the voters.  I don't know if they're lazy, in the bag for McCain, or both.

Sometimes it can just be the former.  Four years ago in MD my stepfather made some mistake voting.  He asked the election worker for a redo, and they informed him he could just "go home now."  He told them he didn't wan't to go home, he wanted to vote.  That I believe is just laziness.

November 3, 2008 12:02 PM

JosephCuomo said:

I agree with Rhubarbs.

(psantillana, funny stuff, and true.)

November 3, 2008 12:59 PM