Phone Corps: Feeling better about Ohio!

[Pushed To The Left]

I made some calls to Ohio tonight, and it sounds like Kerry support is growing out there! I had more people agree to come to the canvass than I have any other time. I also ended up in some long conversations with Kerry supporters, and apparently the Headquarters out there is seeing a lot of people stop by wanting to get involved. www.electoral-vote.com is looking better for Ohio too! :bounce:

[DarthDem]

1. Everything from Ohio . . .

. . . is sounding very good these days. Kerry was very smart to head there after the second debate for his rally, and he and Edwards seem to be blanketing the state, very appropriately. I just wish they would go to Arkansas or Nevada, states where they can reach the entire population with one visit via the media . . . could be decisive.

I think Kerry will win Ohio, making it a nice, relaxed election night for those of us watching the results. Of course, they may have counting problems - - but can the Criminals really steal two big states in one election? I doubt it.

[Philostopher]

4. If we have problems, it will be at the front end

not the back end -- voting problems, in other words, not counting problems.

Most places have a fallback plan for people who show up in the wrong precinct to vote -- they give them a provisional ballot that includes only national and statewide issues. Ken Blackwell is fighting to keep precincts from handing out any provisional ballots. If you show up at the wrong precinct, tough shit -- find the right one or you don't vote, in other words.

It remains to be seen whether he'll win -- he lost on the registration thing about the weight of the cardstock paper new registrations were submitted on; he lost at his attempt to bluster Nader's way onto the ballot, though they already had printed the absentee ballots with his name on them; he lost at his bid not to include any information in the preprinted absentee ballots to advise people Nader was not a candidate.

He'll probably win on this one, but my hope is that it won't be an enormous problem. It really only affects those who have moved since the last general election, and don't either go back to their precinct of registration to vote (I've had to do this before) or change their address with the BOE. We're so paranoid here in Ohio already, I think most of the GOTVers have been telling people to be sure they get this right.

And there will be very few electronic voting machines -- seven counties will be using them, I believe, and they're not Diebold machines (they're Sequoias, don't know what their reputation is). Most people who vote in Ohio will vote on a manila punch-card or an optical scan card. Those things, too, have their weaknesses -- but we already know what those are, and how to counter everything but outright fraud.

As I've said here before, I think they're going to have to work to suppress voter turnout, intimidate people at the polls, or outright throw away votes to have any ultimate effect on the outcome of the general election as voted in Ohio this year. That's not to say they won't, but they'll have to earn their cheating the old way -- by actually getting their hands dirty.

[cheshire]

2. Saw Kerry rally from there this weekend it was a huge crowd. YAAAAAAAA

[olddem43]

3. Thanks for the help - I did house to house canvassing on

Saturday in Cincinnati/Norwood Very positive experience. We had a lot of help from Kentucky Dems who didn't want to waste time in their non-swing state. Keep up the good work on the phones and remember, if we win Ohio, we win it all.