Just got back from voting in Ohio. One election official told us that

[madmom]

turn out has been steady and about 10% have voted already. Don't know if he meant statewide, county wide or just our little neck of the woods, but I do know this was the first time I have ever had to stand in line and wait to vote.

[Ninga]

1. How exciting! I think we will head downtown to vote tomorrow. This feels historic to me.

[onethatcares]

2. I felt that way in 2004

and got kicked in the teeth when the shrub got reelected.

I'm hoping for the best, planning for the worst and voting Democratic.

[Drunken Irishman]

3. One good thing: Obama consistently leads in the polls there. Kerry consistently trailed...

Obama leads by an average of 5.5 points:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/oh/ohio_romney_vs_obama-1860.html

The final Ohio pull had Bush winning by an average of 2.1 points:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Presidential_04/oh_polls.html

[robinlynne]

7. but is that the adjusted poll? where they change the poll results to match the outcome?

[Drunken Irishman]

8. No. They were survey polls released before the election.

[KaryninMiami]

14. It needs to stay at at least a 4 or 5 point lead

If it goes below that, between the machine rigging and the suppression, they will skim between 1-3 points off or so on average. And even if the exit polls predict and Obama win, they will say it was within the margin of error or the exit polls were wrong. Which is why we need at least a 4 or 5 point lead.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. I wouldn't be shocked if it narrowed.

I anticipate the numbers could narrow a bit when the undecideds eventually pick a side. Right now, 7% in the average are either undecided or voting for someone else. Let's just assume 1% vote for someone else and the rest, 6%, are undecided. Romney is likely to pick up more undecided votes than Obama, since historically that's what happens with the challenger. So, say Romney wins 70% of the undecideds ... that's 4.2, right? That gives him 48% and Obama would then get the remainder (1.8), which would be 51.5.

So, I'd wager Obama wins Ohio 51.5 to 48 ... a 3.5 margin.

[Bainbridge Bear]

11. I sympathize with you

the 2004 vote in Ohio was stolen. At least this time Ken Blackwell isn't around to help steal the election like he did then. These Rethug operatives have no shame. To them, winning is everything and they will subvert the electoral system in any way that they can.

[KaryninMiami]

15. I remember that time so well.

Diebold's Wally O'Dell and Blackwell. Criminals. Both of them. No shame is too polite.

[Doremus]

17. Yes, but the repukes are back in the SoS's office

Jennifer Brunner is out and now we have Jon Husted, who has already proven to be a Hackwell minime.

Like you, I won't trust them to NOT be crooks and thieves ... because they are, every single one, to the core of their being.

[okieinpain]

20. I believe they said the wisconsin recall vote had

high turnout also.

[AngryOldDem]

21. I feel exactly the same way.

I just have a bad vibe about this somehow; deja vu 2004.

I carried poll updates from my precinct to my local Kerry headquarters on Election Day 2004. Around 5 p.m. on Election Day, the HQ was absolutely convinced that Kerry would win Ohio. This was but just a few hours before polls closed, when experts could make a fairly sure prediction about how the state would go. Kerry lost Ohio by a 2% margin. We all know what happened elsewhere.

My only hope is that this time, if there is ANY hint of ANY inpropriety, the Obama campaign challenges it, and challenges it hard, even if that means stalling the process indefinitely. I don't care if that means until the Second Coming.

This country absolutely cannot take again the same kind of fuckery that happened in 2004. But a part of me is afraid that that is exactly what we're going to see.

I truly can't get my hopes up right now. I don't trust the process anymore.

EDIT: If not clear, this was in Montgomery County, Ohio, one of the counties that Kerry did win.

[CrispyQ]

22. Tabulators.

[WI_DEM]

4. out of curiousity where in the state do you live?

[madmom]

13. NW corner

[DemzRock]

5. If they were ahead in Ohio 2004, then why did they cheat? n/t

[Ford_Prefect]

6. They cheated to make certain they would win, and because they could.

They are the worst sort of opportunistic creeps. They will use ANY advantage they can think of and subscribe to the theory that if they aren't caught it was the right thing to do. If they are caught it was not their fault, just like the recently disclosed voter dis-registration ploy in Florida and elsewhere.

[NCLefty]

10. Your title sums it up perfectly.

[WCGreen]

9. Probably in your neck of the woods...

Each BOE keeps their own stuff and then sends it down to the SOS office.

[realFedUp]

12. Lock those votes in a vault

No telling what happens in between Republican's crimes.

[INdemo]

18. Don't know how it works in Ohio but

in Indiana the Sec of State is in charge of the polls..So if he is a Republican it would not surprise me if votes were lost and then covered up the theft..Thats what happen in 2004 with Blackwell I think that was his name.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_bob_fitr_071214_ohio_secretary_of_st.htm

I think that the Obama campaign has plenty of lawyers all about to make sure votes are not compromised but that doesn't mean they can detect that computer chip that switches votes.
I wont be satisfied until I hear Rmoney's concession speech.

In this video Blackwell (co-hcair of Ohio Bush reelection camapign and sec of state)
...An interview with ken Blackwell dodging questions about 2004 election)
Go to 36min on the video where the author of a book about the power of Rove explains the exit polling verses the vote count
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/28/ex_ohio_secretary_of_state_ken

[hamsterjill]

19. Just saying "thank you" for waiting in line, etc.

This election is personal for me. So I'm grateful to all who take the time out of their busy lives to vote for Obama.

Thank you. I will be voting myself as soon as early voting begins in my state.

[cr8tvlde]

23. Something hopefully tells me since there seems to be a lot of obvious pre-concern regarding

Republican election fraud, coming off of the massive registration fraud, that these lower election officials will be more concerned by actual fraud and not so easily "bought".

[LiberalLovinLug]

24. Scares me the amount of time before the general election

All those early votes. Lots of time for Repukes to either switch votes or lose ballots.

[Maeve]

25. Columbus area voting center was busy today, too

First time I've voted in-person in a couple of years, but I get more satisfaction out of that then just sending in a ballot.

[F. Kafka]

26. I'll be voting in SW Ohio on Friday

and I'm darn excited to do so.