I worked the elections in columbus ohio......ask me anything

[seriousstan]

I might answer you.

[momzno1]

1. what kind of suspicious activities did you notice?

[seriousstan]

4. Sorry to say, nearly all Dem based

which was a shame because I worked a heavily Dem precinct. I had to throw a group name Pissed off voters, or something like that, out of the building and of the property for campaigning and handing out lit. I also had to escort one fool out for repeatedly campaigning for Kerry and sneaking back into the building. We had both a Dem and Rep challengers who did nothing. We had extremely long lines. Very late, after 9 pm, we were besieged by Rep lawyers who apparently wanted to make sure nobody was allowed in line after 7:30. I threw them out an made them go 100 ft from the doors. Everyone in line had a very positive attitude and it sort of became party like.

on edit.....the group was named...League of Pissed Off Voters

[Nikepallas]

2. Did you feel comfortable with the events of that day?

[whirlygigspin]

3. who won Ohio?

hmmmm?

[seriousstan]

6. All I can say is who won our precinct........Kerry.

No surprise there, we are very heavy Dem. The good news was that we had around 60-70 percent turnout.

[seriousstan]

5. Very, II have worked with these same people, give or take one or two

for over 15 years now. We did the best we could to move the lines but folks were taking over 6 minutes to vote and that means you only get 10 people per box per hour.

[Pirate Smile]

7. Do you have any idea what the deal is with those precincts or wards that

had extremely low turnout - like 17%? That seems really strange.

[seriousstan]

8. We had an enormous turnout. Our registered voters went up

25 percent and our turnout had never been that high. We had over twice the highest turnout I can remember and I have worked the same prescient for over 15 years. Which precincts had the low turnout? I might be ale to tell you about the demographics of the areas.

[Pirate Smile]

10. I just asked over in 2004 Elections and they said it was in

Cuyohoga County (Cleveland) "One precinct was 7%, I believe. Several others under 30%".

[seriousstan]

12. Sorry, I live in Columbus.

[Pirate Smile]

13. Thanks anyway. What is the current reaction to all of this in Ohio?

Are people aware or is it flying under the radar?

Are people annoyed with the recount or pissed about all the screw ups and nasty tactics i.e. voter suppression stuff?

[Yupster]

15. I used to be an election judge

When we had precincts with that kind of turnout, it was always because almost all the voters came from low cost apartments.

The people were young and rented month to montha and left as soon as they saved a little bit of money for a downpayment on a better apartment.

In short, the reason the turnout was so low was half the people on the rolls no longer lived there, may have registered and voted somewhere else, but their name just hadn't disappeared from the rolls yet.

In fact I always take the turnout numbers with a grain of salt.

Most of the time I judged, I lived in a heavily Republican area, and the turnout was always very high. I knew pretty much everyone, and when I'd look at the sheets, and see who hadn't voted, half the time I knew why. They had died, or they had moved.

I wonder if the national turnout numbers are really nearly as bad as they always sound.

[Zan_of_Texas]

9. You mean 7%?

As I understand it, that was in sw Ohio. Hispanic precinct, with only one translator.

There was some idea that perhaps voters or workers were putting the cards in upside down or backwards, and nothing was counting.

[Pirate Smile]

11. Thanks - yes, 7% I guess. God, that sucks.

[Eric J in MN]

14. Did you hand-count 3%, then machine-count the rest? (NT)

NT

[seriousstan]

16. I only work the elections.