Oregon, I believe, had the highest voter turnout of any state. I cannot guarantee we were fraudless, but what I can tell you is that no voters were challenged at the polls, ballots were cast on paper and optically scanned, and there were no huge surprises. Except, maybe, one.
We voted for Kerry--that's not a surprise. The only surprise for us is how narrow the margins were.
When you look at voter turnout, I think you find an answer.
My county, Lane, is very politically active and motivated and we hit 90% turnout. Yes, really. 90% of all registered voters voted. Our turnout was 76% the day before the election, because it's all vote by mail.
State average turnout was 84%. Great! Right?
Except that turnout in our biggest, most liberal county in the state, Multnomah, was only "average".
More below the fold:
Start here.
You'll find a section that looks about like this:
2004 General Election Voter Resources
Unofficial Ballot Return Information
Daily
(.pdf)
Cumulative
(.pdf)
Daily,
Cumulative and Historical (.xls)
Click on Cumulative... look at the county distribution.
Now... Go to CNN's state breakdown for Oregon.
This lets you compare nicely.
Guys, the GOTV in Republican areas was very high. Higher in many cases percentage-wise than the populous counties. We got a Kerry victory... barely...but the combination of some lethal and popular ballot measures (gay marriage, state takings, etc.) drove people who otherwise who might not have bothered to stick a stamp on it or drive their ballots down to the drop box.
I do NOT suspect widespread fraud in Oregon, not of the Diebold variety. We do have places where fraud can happen, but all are pretty well avoidable by simple measures (register at the DMV or elections division rather than through a private party, and take care of your own ballot, don't give it to anyone else.)
And they still nearly managed to swing Oregon.
Our GOTV involved nagging on a grand scale. Theirs involved a whispered, "They'll make the gays legal" campaign and a Kerry Supports Partial Birth Abortion campaign that was more shouted from the rooftops.
It is a mark of how very hard each and every volunteer worked here that we stayed blue.