Just finished a post over at
Odd Hours on how the most recent "location-specific" style of terror alert could potentially be abused on election day. It's one thing for the Bush campaign to try to scare voters using a generic, nationwide Orange or even Red alert. But an alert on or before election day specifically targeting Democratic areas of swing states could be deveastating. If this week's terror alert was specifically targeted to New York, Newark and Washington, what's to prevent an alert on November 2nd being targeted to Philadelphia, Cleveland, Palm Beach and St. Louis?
They wouldn't even have to close the polls. In a close election, all it would take is lower turnout in heavily Democratic areas of a few key swing states. By targeting their terror alerts to those areas, they scare a certain fraction of the voters into staying home instead of going to the polls. In close states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Florida, depressed turnout in Democratic areas could be enough to push the whole state into the Bush column.
Full analysis at Odd Hours, plus what we can do about it.