James Ridgeway

In 1965, James Ridgeway helped launch the modern muckraking era by revealing that General Motors had hired private eyes to spy on an obscure consumer advocate named Ralph Nader. He worked for many years at the Village Voice, has written 16 books, and has codirected Blood in the Face, a film about the far right. In 2012, he was named a Soros Justice Media Fellow.

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States with Voting Problems

—By James Ridgeway

| Tue Nov. 7, 2006 10:50 AM PST

People for the American Way reports the election incident reporting system (EIRS) "is experiencing enormous traffic and is difficult to access. We are working to solve the problem." Some of the hotspots this morning:

Ohio: Confusion over photo ID requirements, delays because of voting machine problems.

Pennsylania: Long lines in Allegheny county where machines did not work this morning. Machine failures resulted in some leaving the polling place without having voted. Voting machine-related delays also in Philadelphia and Lebanon county.

Illinois: In Will County, an election judge failed to show up and a polling place was still closed an hour after polls were supposed to open.

Florida: Voting machine problems and the failure of an election judge to show up in Broward County cause delays. Also, "In Deerfield Beach, one predominantly African American precinct did not open for at least two hours when machines failed, and no paper ballots were available,'' says People.

Indiana: Electronic voting machines were causing problems in Delaware County and Marion County. In Delaware County, computer errors were causing problems in 75 precincts, and in Marion County, touch-screen machines were not working in more than 10 percent of the county's precincts, and voters were using paper ballots instead.

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Virginia Voters Speak Their Minds

—By James Ridgeway

| Tue Nov. 7, 2006 9:05 AM PST

At the Westgate elementary school in Manassas, another northern Virginia Washington suburb, voters are put out because some have been re-routed through two precincts before landing in a third where their names are listed on the books. There were reports of heavy voting in the early morning hours here, but by mid morning there was but a trickle of voters going in and out of the school.

People were not shy in expressing their opinions on who they voted for and why.

Thomas Hamilton, 70, said, "I am better off today than I was four or eight years ago." He cast his ballot for Allen.

Roger Johnson, 58, a plumber, doesn't like the war and thinks the Dems "are a step in the right direction." Johnson adds, "Bring the babies home."

Linda Gerkin, 46, a receptionist, said the war was a major issue. "I support the troops and what we're doing but I'd like to get them out of there," she said, adding the Republicans -- "they'll get them out."

Luis Unana, 26, a student at George Mason University who works full time in a security firm, said he wanted to see traffic improvement and improved higher education. He was against the war, and voted straight Democrat.

Virginia Early Morning Voting

—By James Ridgeway

| Tue Nov. 7, 2006 8:02 AM PST

Polling was relatively light in early morning voting in the key swing northern Virginia suburbs in the Webb/Allen Senate race. At a community center in Dale City, down the Potomac from Washington, there was a small line by 8:30 with officials claiming 155 people having already voted. "I was a veteran," said Clyde Lawrence, who voted for Allen. "You've got to back the troops regardless of what's going on."

The actual voting process is taking somewhat longer than expected because there are three amendments on the ballot, including one on marriage

Heavy rain is predicted for parts of Virginia and Tennessee.

Storm Clouds in Kentucky 2nd

—By James Ridgeway

| Tue Nov. 7, 2006 7:22 AM PST

The race for Conress in Kentucky's second district is not only hotly competitive, but is already embroiled in voting rights irregularities. According to Warren Stewart of VotetrustUSA "callers are complaining that the name of the candidate that shows up on the review screen is not the candidate they voted for." In the end run the irregulaities may amount to nothing, but the contest is well worth keeping an eye on.

In the 2nd district Ron Lewis, the incumbent with 12 years in the House, looked like a shoo-in. But Democratic challenger Mike Weaver is hard on his tail and has pulled up enough for CQ last night to change the ratings from Favored Republican to Leans Republican. Weaver's success in the campaign can be attributed to his conservative stance on issues, which have helped keep him from getting tabbed as yet another left wing Democrat. He shies clear of Nancy Pelosi, plays up his background as a vet, but has been criticized as being too conservative. Lewis looked bad when he didn't show up for eight consecutive debates.

How to Make Sure Your Vote Counts..

—By James Ridgeway

| Mon Nov. 6, 2006 1:37 PM PST

Before you head out to vote tomorrow, you may want to take a look at some of the basic advice given us today from three different groups: Warren Stewart at VoteTrustUSA, Mary Boyle at Common Cause, and Joe Irrera of a Tennessee group called Gathering to Save Our Democracy.

Begin with this simple advice: In general, if challenged on eligibility, says Warren Stewart of VoteTrustUSA, "don't leave the voting place without casting a provisional ballot."

However, be careful what you do, for Common Cause points out "if a poll worker tells you you're at the wrong precint, don't try to vote on a provisional ballot because in many states provisional ballots won't be counted unless they are cast in the right precinct." Try to go to the correct precinct and then cast your vote.

If you vote by machine, and something looks fishy and you don't think your vote is being accurately tabulated, ask to vote on another machine.

Finally, says Common Cause, "if you run into problems, ask a poll worker for help. They are there for assistance. If your right to vote is being challenged, you can call for legal assistance at 1-800-OUR-VOTE and to report a problem or find your polling place, call 1-866-MYVOTE 1."

A real gloomy view about all this comes from Tennessee where Joe Irrera ,Vice-President of Information Systems at Gathering to Save Our Democracy, said the following:

Unfortunately, as a voter tomorrow there's not a whole lot you can watch out for except screen calibration errors on your touchscreen voting machine. In other words, candidate flipping in the final voter selection review, before confirming your vote.

As the recent Princeton University study confirms, illegal software can easily be introduced into that touchscreen voting machine via the memory card, which secretly miscounts votes. The voter would never know it when the final machine totals tape is printed after the polls close.

Most of the danger is unseen below the surface. I'm referring to the central tabulator computers. These are the ordinary Windows computers that are fed the totals from each of the voting districts. In Shelby County (Memphis area), Tennessee we're already dealing with illegal software and a network connection that was found on both the main and backup Diebold GEMS computers which would facilitate manually altering vote totals in the database. We only discovered this because several local primary candidates contested the final vote tally and were able to bring in their own computer expert to examine the equipment.

The Diebold GEMS central tabulator software is frighteningly insecure and when you couple this with an internet-enabled network connection to the PC, you have the capacity to alter tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of votes for that county, from anywhere in the world! Thanks to the internet, I have a downloaded, working copy of GEMS on my home PC, including the Shelby County primary vote totals database. I'm less knowledgeable of the ES&S central tabulator because of the wall of secrecy the voting machine manufacturers have been legislatively allowed to hide behind. However, considering both Diebold Election Systems and Election Systems & Software originated from the same company (Data Mark), I'm not optimistic.