No matter how many times you've voted, you're not ready for ......

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ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK

No matter how many times you've voted, you're not ready for what you'll find on Election Day 2004


By Aaron Marshall / Sept. 30, 2004
The Other Paper
Columbus, Ohio


http://theotherpaper.com/cover.html



Back in the good old days of Ohio elections, a period historians call the 20th century, there wasn't much to casting your vote. A short wait in line, a little chat with the old-as-hell poll worker, a trip behind the magic curtain, and you were on your way.

Scholars can debate how much Florida's 2000 election debacle changed America. But there's no doubt it will change a lot of Ohioans' trips to the polls on Nov. 2.

You can't swing an unmarked absentee ballot without hitting someone hinting darkly that our Election Day will fall somewhere between complicated and disastrous. How? Let us count the ways.

Outside the polls you may notice more people than usual milling about. That's because a labor-union led effort is under way to put "election protection" monitors outside polling locations in Columbus and other Ohio cities. Plus, international election monitors—that's right, Jimmy Carters from other countries, keeping an eye on us—are likely headed to Columbus.

http://theotherpaper.com/cover.html