I'm working on the ground today in PA, and we're seeing a few troubling trends.
Most troubling is the liberal use of provisional ballots. The voter rolls used at many of the polling sites appear to be outdated. As a result, many voters, especially those who registred via the motor/voter program are finding that their names are not on the rolls. Instead of verifying the voter's registration status by calling the board of elections, as they should, poll workers are instead having the voter cast a provisional ballot.
This gives rise to two huge potential problems. First, PA law does not appear to auhtorize provisional ballots cast in this manner, making it possible that many of these votes could be tossed out. Second, PA's procedure for counting provisional ballots requires an examination of each ballot to compare the signature to the one on the voter registration. This has the potential to become a very messy situation with dueling handwriting analysts arguing over whether a vote can count.
For those of you in PA, if you see this happening when you vote, insist that the election judges verify your identity. Also, be sure to report any violations to your local board of elections.
If PA ends up being close, this could end up being this year's "hanging chad" debicle. Let's do what we can to prevent this.
ps. sorry for using the title line to ask for you to recommend this diary, but I think this is a critical issue, and I wont be able to log back on to continue to push it.