Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center, working from an election protection call center, gave me an overview of the problems occurring out there:
--Biggest nationwide problem are voter registration problems. Namely, registered voters are not appearing on the voter rolls, often in battleground states: Florida, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, and Ohio in Cuyoga and Franklin counties. It's mainly newly registered voters but there are some longtime registered voters who may have been purged for not matching a database.The good news is there haven't been any large scale meltdowns, but the problems here are based in large part on an outdated voter registration system that is subject to partisan challenges and politicization, and a serious lack of preparation and contingency plans for situations where, say, machines break down or polling places run out of ballots. Overall, states are responding well to the turnout.--The long lines are a problem, but Virginia is especially bad. In some precincts, several machines broke down and some polling places didn't have backup paper ballots. Similar problems are being called in from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, in Florida, Michigan, New York, and Missouri, where one poll book was sent to the wrong precinct. Good news from Miami, though: the lines are not as chaotic and long as they were during the early voting period.
--Many people have not received absentee ballots, and in Ohio and Florida (Palm Beach County) some absentee ballots have been disqualified on technicalities.
--Deceptive practices: There's been reports of "Democrats vote on Wednesday" type scams, in Suffolk County New York at the social services office, (where many Suffolk County voters register) there was a flier found urging the above. There was an incident at George Mason that has been well reported on.
--Student voting: The polling place near Virginia Tech was moved six miles away, after the local registrar spent weeks trying to discourage students from voting. There were similar problems of a registrar rejecting registrations from Radford University in Virginia, where hundreds of students were not able to register to vote. In Iowa, students have been facing voter challenges from local officials--note Obama's Iowa win last year had a lot to do with the students who turned out.
