Chaos in Ohio, confirm observers

Reports from observers in Ohio confirm that the much-coveted state is experiencing chaos on election day.

While Democrats and Republicans spared no effort in trying to claim the state's 20 electoral votes, even treading into legally questionable territory, other problems pointed to an electoral system in disrepair.

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Rupa Singh, an attorney from San Diego who flew in to assist a nonpartisan group, said that voters throughout Ohio were calling in with complaints about a wide variety of problems.

"It's crazy here," said Singh, one of a number of attorneys manning hotlines. "The phone is ringing off the hook."

Half the calls, she said, were from people who didn't know where they were supposed to vote, in part because they had moved or had lost their voter card.

The other complaints, said Singh, were more "troubling". "People are saying they asked for an absentee ballot five months ago and never got it," said Singh. "There's a lot of people in that boat."

Other voters, some of whom had voted at the same location for twenty years, were told at polling places that they weren't registered there.

Singh noted that although callers were never asked to declare their party affiliation or race, many volunteered that they were Democrats and African American.

In recent days, Democrats and Republicans have fought in court over a Republican initiative to allow several thousand monitors into polling places, where they would be allowed to challenge voters they suspected of being ineligible to vote.

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While Republicans contended it was necessary to prevent voter fraud, Democrats claimed the initiative was directed at poor neighbourhoods with large numbers of minorities, and was part of a larger drive to suppress voter turnout.

Today, the US Supreme Court refused to consider a final challenge to the initiative.

According to Singh, other callers were asking about flyers being distributed in a predominately African American neighbourhood in Cleveland.

The flyer reportedly stated that election officials, concerned about excessive crowding at polling places, were asking Republican voters to vote on November 2 and Democratic voters to vote on November 3.

"It might just be an overzealous supporter," said Singh. But she added that her husband, a Kerry volunteer in Arizona, had encountered voters there who had received similarly misleading flyers.

"We don't know if people actually believe this," she said.

Singh noted that some callers had been asked by polling officials to produce ID, which is illegal, while other voters at extremely crowded sites were being turned away without being allowed to vote. At one location, disabled voters had no access into a polling site and were told they wouldn't be able to vote.

Many problems were being reported with electronic voting machines, whose use has been at the centre of controversy.

"In Franklin City, several machines were showing there were already votes registered before people had voted," said Singh.