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SF GateNo one is predicting a repeat of the Florida meltdown of 2000, but election experts warn of shortages of voting machines in key states, a lack of trained poll workers, puzzling state rules on what ID voters must carry to the polls, and a purging of voter rolls in many states that may force thousands of voters to cast provisional ballots, which often go uncounted.
In battleground states such as Ohio and Indiana, election officials are bracing for a swarm of legal challenges by party officials over who is eligible to vote, stemming partly from GOP concerns over false voter registrations filed by the group ACORN.
The ugly side of politics is already on display in some states. In Virginia, a phony flyer that used the seal of the state election board informed voters in the Hampton Roads area that "due to the larger than expected voter turnout" the state Assembly had ruled that Republicans would vote on Tuesday and Democrats would vote on Wednesday, a day after the election. State police are investigating the incident.
Election experts are forecasting a massive turnout, driven by intense interest in the presidential race and anxiety over an ailing economy and two wars. Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, is predicting that between 127 million and 132 million people will cast ballots - or 60.4 to 62.9 percent of those eligible to vote. That could exceed the recent high water mark in voter participation set in 2004 - 60.7 percent - which was the highest since 1968, when 61.9 percent cast ballots.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/29/MN4N13PJCE.DTL&type=politics
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