"The Electoral College Does It Better"

Benjamin Zycher offers this commentary in the Los Angeles Times.

Long Lines at Polls? Will Voting Hours Be Extended?

The Miami Herald reports here of up to three-hour waits for those wishing to cast early votes. With plenty of news reports of polls not being adequately staffed on Election Day, there is reason to worry that there could be litigation to keep polls open longer (something that happened in St. Louis last time and remains mired in controversy last time).

I don't know Florida's law on polling hours, but Ohio's law is like California's: whoever is standing in line at the time the polls close gets to vote, but no one new can join the line (see Ohio Rev. Code section 3501.32(A)). If there are just a few people in line, this is easy to police. But if there are very long lines because of voting glitches or an inadequate number of poll workers, it will be very hard to police. It would not surprise me to see someone go to court to try to keep the polls open later, and this is something I suspect that will be vigorously opposed by some.

The long lines for early voting too make early voting to avoid these problems somewhat problematic.

Two from Wall Street Journal

See Making Expat Votes Count and As a Final Gambit, Parties Are Trying to Damp Turnout. Thanks to Steven Sholk for the links.

"Texas Democratic Lawyers Join in Effort to Protect the Vote"

Law.com offers this report.

"Signs of Voter Fraud Appear"

The Los Angeles Times offers this report.

"Election Boards Face Suit"

See this report in the Columbus Dispatch.

Two from the New York Times

The newspaper offers Expect Bush v. Kerry, the Chadless Sequel and Judge Rules Against 10,000 Floridians Barred from Voting.

The newspaper also offers an editorial, The Three-Hour Poll Tax.