Why it was close enough to steal Ohio

My wife and i used to live in Ohio. A good friend of ours who still lives there worked a polling place in Stark County. She voted Republican from Bush 1 through his election but became a strong Kerry supporter because of the Iraq war. She said that in late afternoon the Republicans swarmed the precinct and got the name of every registered Republican who had not yet voted. They called every one of them and offered rides to the polling place.

I guess this is legal? I would hate to think the Dem's were out worked with so much at stake.

(Hamilton County, in dem areas)

Why were they given access to those election registers at that time?

Registering yourself Dem or Repub or Lib or Green pretty much makes you a member of that party.

The party leadership is allowed to see the list of its members.

Democrats did this, too, in some places. There are Dems here on DU who did GOTV right up to 7:30 on Election Day.

Our Secretary Of State threatened black voters and underequipped their polling places. People waited in line in some places a long as nine hours to vote. How many chose not to vote, either because they were afraid of being challenged or because they had to work or take care of families and couldn't spend nine hours in line?

We'll never know, because the vote that can be prevented from being cast will never count against 'your guy.' They figured that one out and made damned sure a lot of votes didn't get cast against 'their guy.' It wouldn't have made any difference in those precincts if people had gone to the voters' houses and driven them to the polls -- some people can't stand in line four to nine hours to wait to cast their votes.

I have the greatest respect for those who did, I just want to say that. But I can't hammer the ones who didn't, either. I couldn't have done it that day -- I didn't plan to be off a whole day just to cast a vote that shouldn't have taken more than an hour to cast. Not that they were concerned -- I'm in white suburbia. We had eight voting machines (punch card, by the way) and four poll workers. They all worked spectacularly. Our votes probably broke about even.

She didn't.

She might want to remember that.

We have to stop buying the Republican cover story that our neighbors are idiots and religious fanatics.

why are you assuming it has to be close to steal. Could it be that ALL the numbers we are seeing are fake. My fear is, not just for Ohio, that we vote, and they put up the numbers they want us to see.

When I went to vote for Gore in 2000, there was hardly anyone there. I didn't have to wait a minute. When I went to vote for Kerry in 2004, the line was an hour long, outside and in the rain. The turnout was higher, but not even 2-fold higher. It's obvious to me now that less voting machines were put into Democratic Counties in OH.

I did the same thing for a U.S. House candidate in my precinct in a Dayton suburb.

in Stark Co. That's what I did on election day.