How we’re going to blog the election tonight
POSTED AT 4:21 PM ON NOVEMBER 6, 2012 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
There’s only so much order you can impose on the chaos created by a magnitude 10.0 newsquake but between the four of us we’re going to try. Here’s a quick and dirty guide to our plan so that you know what to expect tonight. The easiest way to do this, we think, is to split up the labor according to poll closing times for key battleground states across the U.S. The breakdown:
7 p.m. ET to 8 p.m.: Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina
8 p.m. ET to 9 p.m.: Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire
9 p.m. ET to 10 p.m.: Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota
10 p.m. ET to 11 p.m.: Iowa, Nevada
8 p.m. ET to 9 p.m.: Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire
9 p.m. ET to 10 p.m.: Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota
10 p.m. ET to 11 p.m.: Iowa, Nevada
We’ll have four separate threads, one for each of these groups, on the front page. I’ll take the 7 p.m. group, Erika will cover the 8 p.m. crowd, MKH will handle the 9 p.m. slot, and Ed will join in at 10 p.m. Each of us will be updating our respective threads on those states throughout the night. Any other commentary we have about the election generally or about a state we’re not assigned to cover will be posted in the Greenroom, so it’ll be worth it to open up the master page in a separate tab and check in periodically. Should be lots of material in there. On top of all that, Ed will be co-hosting the Hugh Hewitt show tonight beginning at 6 p.m. ET; you can watch it here beginning at 6pm Eastern.
Prepare for a clusterfark, in other words, but hopefully a happy one. (One way to prepare: Make sure you know the basics of the electoral math.) To tide you over until showtime, here’s a rewarding Onion bit about the stupid predictability and predictable stupidity of social media today. (How bad is it out there? Dude.) It’s funny but profane, so please observe your official content warning.
http://www.businessinsider.com/some-voting-machines-in-wisconsin-were-acting-weird-2012-11
Some voting machines in Wisconsin were on the fritz today, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Some Voting Machines In Wisconsin Were Acting Weird
Getty Images
Here's the problems on a county by county basis, according to the WSJ:
- "In Pewaukee, Wis., a fiercely conservative suburb of Milwaukee, a voter reported that a machine did not register his ballot after he inserted it."
- "South of Madison, Wis., a liberal stronghold, Mr. Magney said there were reports of voters casting ballots for two presidential candidates: either President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney and then a third-party candidate."
- "In Milwaukee, a voting machine went down at the height of early-morning voting at one of the city’s busiest polling places."
Overall, it doesn't sound all that bad. But, the WSJ says there's a chance we could see a delay in the results.
Also of note, turnout was strong. Neil Albrecht, executive director of Milwaukee’s election commission said turnout was higher in the early morning hours than in 2008.
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-jerseys-vote-by-email-meltdown-2012-11
and.....http://www.businessinsider.com/new-jerseys-vote-by-email-meltdown-2012-11
New Jersey's Vote-By-Email Plan Fell Apart Almost Immediately
When New Jersey announced over the weekend that it would allow voters displaced by the storm to vote by email or fax, many people were concerned about the possibility of hacking or other vote-tampering.
"E-mail voting is insecure because it's hard to authenticate the voter, the ballots can be intercepted and changed, and the computer servers that store them can be hacked," Bloomberg reported.
Additionally, the plan had provoked confusion among voters, as at first the state said no paper ballot was necessary, and later reneged, saying a mailed-in paper confirmation was also required.
Critics were right to be concerned about the last-minute email-voting plan, but it wasn't hackers or confused voters that bear primary responsibility. Today the vote-by-email system melted down due to a far more pedestrian problem: overflowing inboxes.
According to BuzzFeed's Ben Smith, email addresses of county clerks in Essex and Morris counties are bouncing messages back unread.
(At least one clerk, Christopher Durkin of Essex, began directing residents to send their applications to a personal Hotmail address, which, Wired reported, was not exactly secure, since Durkin uses his mother's maiden name as a security question, a notoriously easy piece of information to dig up in public records.)
In response to the mess, New Jersey's Lieutenant Governor has released a statement saying, "It has become apparent that the County Clerks are receiving applications at a rate that outpaces their capacity to process them without an extension of the current schedule. Given this extraordinary volume, if a displaced voter can vote by other means, they are urged to do so." For those who can't, the state has extended its email-voting deadline to Friday at 8 p.m., but the requests for such a ballot are still due today at 5, raising questions about what people will do if their emails keep bouncing -- that is, if they can't find a working fax machine.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-ohio-vote-count-could-be-a-mess-20121105
ANALYSIS: POLITICS
The Ohio Vote Count Could Be a Mess
AP PHOTO/ALAN DIAZ
Chad enough? No one wants a repeat.
Provisional-ballot contests and extended county-by-county recounts make Ohio the state most likely to send the presidential election into overtime.
Updated: November 6, 2012 | 3:43 p.m.
November 5, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.
It’s easy to imagine what the late Tim Russert’s whiteboard might say tonight: Ohio, Ohio, Ohio.
The Buckeye State has supplanted its Southern cousinFlorida as the marquee battleground of the 2012 presidential election—the state most likely to tip the race to either President Obama or Mitt Romney. Both candidates and their allies practically took up residence there in the past month, while their ads inundated the airwaves.
But Ohio also bears another, more ominous similarity to the 2000 Florida: If a close race demands a recount, conditions are ripe for a repeat of the delays, confusion, and chaos that racked the Sunshine State. And just like 12 years ago, the state’s ultimate winner could very well determine who is the next president. Part of the reason is that swing states such as Ohio haven’t adopted some of the reforms that Florida enacted after its infamous recount.
The potential problems that could arise in a close race inOhio are myriad. But the most obvious flash point involves provisional ballots, those cast if a voter’s eligibility is in question. Election officials don’t count provisional or absentee ballots until 10 days after Election Day. In case of a narrow margin and with hundreds of thousands of such votes still to be counted, neither candidate could claim victory. (Ohio recorded 200,000 provisional ballots in 2008, a number expected to rise this time.) “Everyone is going to be saying, ‘It’s just like Florida,’ ” says Trevor Potter, who was general counsel for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Both campaigns are also girding for a fight over which provisional ballots will ultimately be deemed valid. And, here again, there is uncertainty. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit this week ruled in favor ofOhio’s secretary of state, a Republican, who had ordered that provisional ballots cast at the wrong location would not be counted. A lower court had overturned the secretary’s decision earlier this month. Challengers could appeal the Appellate Court ruling to the Supreme Court on an expedited basis, which would draw yet another comparison to 12 years ago.
The argument over which provisional ballots should be counted, Potter says, is where the process could degenerate into partisan warfare on a county-by-county basis. (Sound familiar?) If the campaigns learn the names and partisan leanings of the voters who cast each ballot, they’ll fight to keep some from being counted, Potter says. “Both parties have had teams of lawyers in Ohio for some time,” he says. “In a close race, you would see at least a 10-day period of disputes and uncertainty before the local boards.” Neither campaign will be caught flat-footed. Obama’s top attorney, Robert Bauer, and Romney’s, Ben Ginsberg, were each deeply involved in the Florida recount.
The biggest dispute will likely center on Ohioans who applied for an absentee ballot but decided instead to vote on Election Day. These voters will be allowed to cast only provisional ballots, which will be counted only after officials determine they didn’t vote twice.
This isn’t the first time Ohio has been poised for a fight over provisional ballots. In 2004, lawyers for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were ready to challenge the provisional ballots cast for President Bush. But the president’s margin in the state—more than 100,000 votes—made a challenge moot. Experts say that an Obama or Romney edge would need to be closer to 25,000 votes for provisional ballots to become a factor.
Legal challenges in the years since 2004 have removed some of the uncertainty, according to Edward Foley, who directs Ohio State University’s election-law program. But the state has never faced a test like the one it might see this month. “I’m not saying Ohio’s system can’t withstand it. It’s a question mark,” he says. “The question is: Can they do it fast enough? Can they do it fair enough?”
And if the confusion over provisional ballots wasn’t enough, the possibility of an outright recount further clouds Ohio’s outcome. The state will conduct an automatic recount if the difference between Obama’s and Romney’s tallies is less than one-quarter of 1 percentage point. But officials won’t begin that process until the election results are certified, which might not happen until early December.
Each county has 21 days to certify its results before submitting them to the secretary of state, according to a spokesman from the office, who then has an additional several days to do his own certification. Foley points out, however, that state law allows the secretary of state to speed up the recount.
Ohio doesn’t seem to have heeded the lessons of 12 years ago. After its tumultuous recount, Floridastreamlined its procedures—mandating an automatic statewide recount if the total vote is split by less than one-half of 1 percentage point. Rules there require that a recount would be ordered by the fifth day after Nov. 6 and must be completed by the eighth day afterward. “We’ve got 12 years of successful elections under our belt inFlorida since we were in the spotlight,” says Stephen F. Rosenthal, general counsel for the Obama campaign in Florida.
Not everyone sees disaster looming. Mark Weaver, a veteran of the George W. Bush campaign’s legal team in 2004 who is now working for Romney in Ohio, said that a worst-case scenario falls somewhere betweenOhio’s aborted recount in 2004 and the 2000 comedy of errors in Florida. But there will be no fodder for another HBO movie, he says. “You really can’t have another Florida precisely the way Florida was—if for no other reason [than] you don’t have punch cards anymore,” Weaver says. “And they were the heart of the problem in Florida.”
Maybe. But if this election goes into overtime, it will likely again be a single state that takes the blame.
http://www.infowars.com/reports-of-voting-machine-problems-vote-flipping-begin-to-pour-in/
Reports Of Voting Machine Problems, Vote Flipping Begin to Pour In
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Nov 6, 2012
Infowars.com
Nov 6, 2012
Multiple reports of electronic voting machine irregularities have begun to pour in from all over the country as Americans take to the polls today.
Voters in Hamilton County Indianapolis were forced to wait for 30 minutes to begin voting because the machines were not working when the polling station opened.
The AP reports that “cards used to clear tallies from machines before voting begins were improperly programmed,” meaning that around 500 machines had to be “reset”.
The Toledo Blade reports that some 100 voters were unable to cast ballots this morning in Bedford, Ohio, because a voting machine was not working. Officials said that a memory card had to be replaced. Long lines led to people walking away.
In Dubuque, Iowa, more voters were delayed when machines failed to operate for around 45 minutes after the polling station opened.
Reports from across North Carolina, one of the key swing states, are pouring in suggesting that voting machines are flipping votes from one candidate to the other.
In Greensboro, “a voter complained that they tried to vote for Mitt Romney three times but that the ballot cast was instead for Barack Obama. Other voters in Guilford County and in some other parts of the state said they experienced similar issues.”
In Charlotte, another voter reported the same problem.
In Rehoboth, Massachusetts problems with voting machines were also noted. The machines officials are using are 14 years old, according to the report. Problems were also reported in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
In Milford Township, Pennsylvania, three voting machines stopped working after just one hour of voting. After a technician got them working again, one of them broke down a second time, causing waiting voters to begin discussing their distrust of the machines and the potential for voter fraud.
In Crawford County, problems with machines were also reported. They had not been set to the correct time, so were unable to be used for a short period of time.
In Missouri, the Secretary of State’s office has been forced to respond after numerous voters claimed that machines were flipping votes for Romney to votes for Obama.
In Pittsburgh, voters have reported multiple problems with voting machines.
In Sandy Springs, Georgia, hundreds of people were delayed when voting machines went down at around 11 a.m.
In Nashville, Tennessee, technical issues with the machines were reported by many voters, while inChattanooga, machines malfunctioned, meaning some voters had to put their ballots in the machine without them being scanned.
In Fredericksburg, Northern Virginia, hundreds of voters were turned away as all of the electronic voting machines at one polling station failed to operate. Polling workers only had 50 paper ballots available. Worse still, some voters who used the machines were told that their votes would not count if they had placed them before 8am.
In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, voting machines have failed to work all day and election officials have twice run out of paper ballots.
In Faulkner County, Arkansas, machines were reported inoperable.
Some areas in Virginia reported voting machine problems.
Voters in California have complained that voting machines switched their votes for Obama to Romney.
A video uploaded to YouTube today purports to show a voting machine flipping a vote for Obama to a vote for Romney. The voter notes:
“I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.”
A jump in the video before the voter presses the button has caused some to suspect that the footage has been altered. The YouTube user insists this is not the case, and that the jumping is because of his cell phone camera. Decide for yourself below:
Last week this same problem was reported in six other states.
In Ohio, a lawsuit has been filed following the installation of software into voting machines by the state that experts say could allow “back door” vote manipulation by non-election board officials.
Green Party candidate Robert J. Fitrakis filed papers yesterday in federal court in Columbus, seeking an order blocking the use of the machines and the software in vote counting. Named as defendants in the case are Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and Omaha, Nebraska- based Election Systems & Software Inc.
As we have routinely reported during elections, electronic voting machines have caused significant problems. Many security experts are adamant that the machines can easily be hacked, and past cases have shown that vote fraud has been facilitated by the use of electronic voting machines.
Early morning prognostications......
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/swing-state/?hp=r6
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/05/seven-states-electoral-math-made-easy/
Seven states: Electoral math made easy
POSTED AT 7:28 PM ON NOVEMBER 5, 2012 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
What follows will be old hat to most readers, who’ve been wargaming paths to 270 for six months now, but I’m thinking it might be useful to casual readers who are stopping by tonight and tomorrow because their interest in the election is peaking. Simple question: Which states does Romney need to win to clinch the presidency? BuzzFeed tried to answer this earlier today with a flow chart, but it doesn’t give you any sense of whether individual battlegrounds are likely right now to break red or blue. So here’s how I’m approaching it. Right off, to simplify things, I’m assuming Romney wins North Carolina (15 EVs) and Obama wins Nevada (6). Neither one is a lock but they seem to be the surest bets among swing states. Needless to say, if you live in either of those states (or any other state), you should hustle on down to the polls tomorrow and vote anyway. An upset for O in NC would all but guarantee that he wins the election, and low GOP turnout in Nevada would imperil Dean Heller, whom the party desperately needs to win to have a shot at retaking the Senate. No excuses. Vote, vote, vote.
If you assume NC and NV break red and blue, respectively, then the election starts with Obama at 207 EVs and Romney at 206, with seven states effectively left to decide things. Which brings us to…
The prerequisites: Florida (29), Virginia (13)
Romney leads by 1.5 points in the RCP average in Florida, his best showing in any battleground state. He’s led there for weeks and is widely expected to take the state. He’d better: 29 EVs would be next to impossible to replace. Virginia is more tenuous, with Obama actually holding a very slight lead in the poll of polls right now. Romney could replace those 13 EVs by winning one or more states listed below, but he’s led in multiple polls in Virginia over the past month and seems to be favored there by most analysts. If he loses a squeaker to O, there’d be little margin for error with the remaining five states and it’d likely augur a bad, bad trend for the evening. The good news is that Obama is off his 2008 pace in early voting and Romney aides feel confident that the combo of coal interests plus military voters will nudge him over the line.
If Romney wins both prerequisites, he’s at 248 and within striking distance of the White House. He then needs 22 electoral votes from any combination of these five:
The deciders: Ohio (18), Wisconsin (10), Colorado (9), Iowa (6), New Hampshire (4)
Two obvious possibilities here.
Path One: Ohio + any other state. Even little New Hampshire would be enough to hand Romney the presidency if he locks down the Buckeye state and nothing else. (270-268!) The bad news is that Romney hasn’t led in a state poll in NH for nearly two weeks. The good news is that there’s no early voting there, so if you expect a nationwide trend of Republicans swamping Democrats at the polls tomorrow, then things look promising. In Ohio, Romney hasn’t led in any state poll since October 10 with the lone exception of Rasmussen, which had him up two points last week. Democratic early voting appears to be down, though, and Republicans traditionally outperform their national numbers slightly in Ohio. Tomorrow will be the ultimate test of Obama’s GOTV machine: Ohio Republicans know that the election will likely turn on their turnout, so it’s up to Team O to somehow blunt their numbers by dragging just enough half-hearted, disillusioned Hopenchange fans to the polls. Tall order.
Path Two: Wisconsin + Colorado + any other state. This is trickier, obviously, not only because it involves winning more states but because Romney actually trails by a wider margin in the Wisconsin RCP averagethan in Ohio. Colorado is within two points, though, and the GOP leads in early voting there(!). If CO comes through and Ryan/Walker magic leads to an upset in WI, then Romney can ignore Ohio and hope for Iowa to come through and win him the election. He trails there by less than 2.5 points and three different polls taken over the last two weeks or so have had him ahead by a point. If a red wave breaks tomorrow, it’ll probably carry Iowa with it.
So, what happens if Romney locks up the prerequisites in Florida and Virginia and then wins Colorado, say — but ends up losing narrowly in both Ohio and Wisconsin? Now he’s stuck at 257 and not even winning both Iowa and New Hampshire will get him to 270. Either he needs a huge upset in Nevada, which is unlikely if OH and WI are trending blue, or he needs…
The longshots: Pennsylvania (20), Michigan (16), Minnesota (10).
Actually, neither PA nor MI is a true longshot. Romney’s closer to Obama in the RCP average for each state (3.8 points in both Pennsylvania and Michigan) than he is in Wisconsin (4.2 points). He trails a bit more distantly in Minnesota (5.2 points), but even there, some polls have him either slightly ahead or within three. I’m listing these states here because they’re reliably blue in presidential elections and because the GOP has spent less time and money contesting them than it has in, say, Wisconsin. But if Romney runs into problems in the “decider” states, or if Virginia somehow falls through and he needs to find 13 EVs somewhere, obviously these will be crucially important. My hunch, though, is that if he’s losing narrowly in the more competitive midwestern states, like Ohio, then it’s unlikely he’ll reverse that trend in the less competitive ones. If any of the “longshot” states are turning red, it’s probably because there’s a huge Republican wave and Romney’s cruising to a landslide win. Here’s hoping.
***
If all of the above is too complicated, here’s a much simpler way to understand Romney’s task. Assuming Obama wins Nevada, all he has to do to win the election is take the big four in the Rust Belt and midwest — i.e., Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. That would put him at 271. Romney must win at least one of those four states to have any chance of victory. If he doesn’t, then he’d have to win every other battleground state — Nevada included — or else.
and .......
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/06/michael-tomasky-makes-his-election-2012-predictions.html
Michael Tomasky Makes His Election 2012 Predictions
After months of shocks, gaffes, and reversals of fortune, the contest is back where it was last winter. Michael Tomasky on who will be the last man standing on Wednesday morning.
OK, here we go: the prediction column. Yes, I am predicting that Barack Obama will win, but since I need to get a whole column out of this, let me build slowly and methodically toward the dramatic conclusion.
President Obama waves to supporters as he arrives to speaks at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 5. (Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo)
First, let me start with this somewhat astonishing (I think) observation. The numbers I’m about to give you? I could have given you this exact same Electoral College prediction in June. Or March. Or January. Or probably even last year. For all the twists and turns, all the debates, all the news developments expected and unexpected, the basic math of this election hasn’t changed barely a whit to my eye. It was always close and still is. The electoral map always favored Obama and still does. It’s almost as if we could have had this election months ago, sparing the nation billions of dollars and a lot of agita.
Another point I want to make before starting. It’s worth bearing in mind in several cases, as I show below, that Obama won by some pretty big margins in some important states in 2008, so he can afford drop-offs of 7 or 8 percent in some states, or at least 5 percent, and still win them. You might want to look back over some of those 2008 margins before you settle into your easy chair tonight.
Now, I begin with the states that are automatic Democratic states—states where neither candidate is even contesting matters. Those states add up to 201 electoral votes (yes, George Will, this includes Minnesota).
Then let’s take three states that are being contested this time but have been voting Democratic at least since Bill Clinton. These are Pennsylvania (Democratic since 1992), Michigan (also since 1992), and Wisconsin (since 1988). Some Republicans are hoping to snare at least one of these states.
Are these states really in play? Granting that nobody knows anything until the votes are counted, I’d have to say it’s highly unlikely. States that have been voting one way for nearly a generation could flip from this column to that. But generally speaking they do so only in a real wave election. This is not a wave election, or at least it certainly doesn’t feel and smell like it is. There is no strong momentum right now in one direction or the other. This race now is just two big lumbering dinosaurs pushing against each other.
Now, if unemployment were still 9 percent and the most recent jobs number was 50,000, then I could totally see it. It would be a wave election, and that wave would sweep Obama away. There’s no question that these states will be a lot closer this time—in 2008, Obama won Michigan by more than 16 points, Wisconsin by around 14, and Pennsylvania by 10. We’re more likely looking at margins of less than half those. They may all be within five points. But it doesn’t smell like we’re in an election that actually shifts them.
So put these two categories, the automatic and the pretty strong leaners, together. They lift Obama to 247.
Romney’s automatic total is 191. Then I guess we throw him North Carolina. I actually don’t believe it’s at all insane to think Obama could pull an upset there. All depends on turnout. But the Democratic Party in the state is in pretty weak condition right now. I’m being a tad generous here since many polls show this within the margin of error, but generous is the kind of guy I am, as you well know, so I’ll put Romney’s automatic plus lean total at 206.
That leaves seven states that combine to 85 electoral votes: Florida (29), Ohio (18), Virginia (13), Colorado (9), Iowa (6), Nevada (6), and New Hampshire (4). These are where the game will be decided. From the math, you can see that Obama needs just 23 of these 85, while Romney needs 64 of them.
Let’s start with the easier ones. It appears from most of what I’m seeing that Nevada is banked in Obama’s column, and that Iowa is close to banked. So that gets Obama up to 259, just 11 electoral votes away.
No Floridas, no hanging chads, no Supreme Courts. A lot of states will be close, but I think the result will be clear enough.
I will give Florida to Romney. It’s totally up in the air, I think, and could go either way. But until it’s proven otherwise, I say that the weight of most polls is probably pretty accurate, and the aggregate of Florida polls seems to me to lean very slightly toward Romney. So that gets him to 235. Four states to go.
I’ll toss New Hampshire into Obama’s column. It’s not so different from Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, except that it did go for George W. Bush in 2000. Again, I look at 2008 margins. Obama won it by 10 percent, so he has a cushion here as well. Polls suggests he should be able to eke out a win of three points or so. That’s four more EVs, or 263.
We are left with Colorado, Virginia, and Ohio. I’m going to give Colorado to Romney by a very slim margin. Obama has tended to lead there, but I’m just going to do it, for two reasons. First, I think Colorado swing voters are probably a little more libertarian than Eastern swing voters, which means a few more Romney votes from them. Second, I just don’t think Obama has quite enough momentum that everything is going to tumble his way. That gets Romney to 244.
And that’s where he stops. Obama takes Ohio and Virginia. In Ohio, I think he’s pretty clearly ahead. It’s what the polls say. Virginia is more mixed, but it’s my hunch.
So: Obama 294, Romney 244. No Floridas, no hanging chads, no Supreme Courts. A lot of states will be close, but I think it will be clear enough. Popular vote will be Obama by maybe 1.8 percent, something a shade under 2 percent.
Mind you I lowballed Obama in 2008, for whatever that’s worth. I didn’t give him North Carolina or Indiana, so I have a history of humility on these matters, you could say.
You can watch my Guardian video of my 2008 prediction here. And here you can watch my predictions about the 2012 race that were made in April 2011, when I left the Guardian and came to the Beast. This was my last Guardian video. In it, I said Obama would win reelection with “just above” 300 electoral votes, which will end up being right if he wins Colorado. I confess that I also said the GOP ticket would be Tim Pawlenty and Marco Rubio. Win some, lose some.
You can look at the 2008 results here, and so you can come up with your own results here. And post them below, please. If I’m going to be held to account, you people should be too.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228513/US-Election-Day-2012-Lawsuits-Sandy-early-voting-mishaps-delay-results-WEEKS.html
The 'perfect storm' of technicalities that could delay election result for WEEKS: Lawsuits, damage from Sandy and early voting mishaps cause mayhem
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Natural disasters, differing state laws, and possible chaos at polling stations from citizen fraud minders and broken machines make for a mess of an Election Day across America.
Adding on to the inherent problems that come from the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, which left a handful of northeastern states without power and access to polling stations, a number of other factors threaten the outcome of the presidential election.
Because of the turbulent counting process and new regulations about proper ballot submissions, there is a distinct possibility that the country will not know the next president for days or weeks after they cast their votes.
Scroll down for video
Determined: People, many displaced by Superstorm Sandy, line up to vote on Monday in Burlington, New Jersey, at a Mobile Voting Precinct as numerous voting issues are predicted to delay election results for weeks
A half-dozen problems are at the top of the list for political analysts, who are zoning in on new voter identification requirements and provisional ballot measures in a number of states as two legal issues.
The hurricane may play a role in any potential battle over a close popular vote, as would any machine malfunction issues that inevitably arise every election.
Devoted: Natural disasters, differing state laws, and possible chaos at polling stations from citizen fraud minders and broken machines are expected to make for a mess of an Election Day across America
Displaced: Voters wait in line to file absentee ballots outside the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office in Orlando, Florida
The final two problem areas come from a group of civilians from a subset of the Tea Party who are intent on serving as extra minders at polling stations to look out for fraud, and the onslaught of lawsuits that has already begun in Florida over the deadline for early voting.
Echoes of the mess created in Florida back in 2000 are already flashing before pundits' eyes as the Democratic Party filed lawsuits calling for an extension of the early voting deadline because of excessive lines this weekend.
Though the early voting period officially ended on Saturday, the Democrats challenged- and were quickly rebuked by- Republican governor Rick Scott by demanding the deadline was extended.
The lawsuits were rejected, and now the focus turns solely to Tuesday.
Patient: Voters wait in line to receive absentee ballots at the Wayne County Community College Northwest Campus in Detroit, Monday
Early days: Donna Kaye Erwin posts the results after the 10 registered voters in the small village of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire cast the first election day ballots moments after midnight November 6
Small town: After 43 seconds of voting, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney each had 5 votes in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire
Given the protracted legal battle in Florida in 2000, which resulted in Al Gore losing to former President George W. Bush, the sunshine state generally draws negative attention when it comes to elections, especially considering its' role as a swing state.
But this year, a bevy of problems are coming from a handful of states whose votes are effectively already cast for Obama.
New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are all considered Obama strongholds, so the problem is less about tallying up the votes between the President and Romney in those regions.
Organised: Election judge Carol Anderson holds a vote here signs as Jack Edwards, right, a touch screen technician, sets up voting machines in Salt Lake City
Preparation: A volunteer sets up voting machines at Legend Elementary School in Newark, Ohio
Instead, they would only cause problems if the President wins the Electoral College vote but then loses the popular vote because the voter turnout in the election is far lower than normal because of the devastation from Hurricane Sandy.
'Obviously, this is uncharted water for us- getting hit with this at this late date just before a huge election,' said Michael Harper, a county election clerk in New Jersey.
Legal teams from both the Republican and Democratic camps have been shipped to Ohio because of the state’s new regulations over provisional ballots.
Original: Wilma Barton, a Benton County election deputy, collects ballots on Monday from voters as they drive through the parking lot of the auditorís office in Kennewick, Washington
Drop it: Andre Witcher, of Detroit, casts his ballot at the Wayne County Community College Northwest Campus in Detroit where voters flocked to a three to five hour wait for last day of absentee balloting
John Husted, the Republican secretary of state, enacted a rule this summer where every registered voter in Ohio was mailed an absentee ballot. According to NBC News, 1.3million of those 6.9million voters mailed those ballots back.
On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of Ohioans will be told to fill out provisional ballots instead of real ones because they were sent the absentee ballots and the state election counters will have to confirm that that voters in question did not also send in a ballot, effectively checking to make sure they haven’t voted twice.
And if the poll workers aren’t confusing enough- as they are told to be more demanding in several states when forcing the voters to present proper identification in order to vote- there may also be crowds of skeptical civilians who are looking quizzically at the voters’ actions.
Rest: Sister Virginia Delaney, right, takes a rest while waiting in line on the last day of early voting at the Civic Center in Evansville, Indiana on Monday where she waited an hour and a half to vote
Denial: Vanderburgh County Sheriff's office Sgt. Robert Goedde, left, tells voters that they are too late to vote on the last day of early voting at the Civic Center in Evansville, Indiana
True the Vote, a Tea Party subset, has vowed to serve as makeshift election monitors watching over whether or not the state-hired monitors are doing their jobs properly.
On top of that, a counter group called the Advancement Project will be coming out in droves to face off with the True the Vote members.
‘We will also be watching the poll watchers making sure they aren’t acting as bullies,’ Advancement Project co-director Judith Browne Dianas told NBC.
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