The Guardian had a good heads up article this morning on how the change in voting systems and poorly run polling booths could conspire to derail the entire election because of the controversy that will arise when too many people have too few, and incompetently run, polling places.
The article is based on a 77 page report by the highly respected Pew organization who say:
"People talk about meltdown. It is over-optimistic to think that 130 million people can vote and something does not go wrong ... We have spent eight years sorting the plumbing, but on November 4 we are going to crank up the system."
The original Pew document (warning: very large pdf file) outlines a number of problem areas, many of which the Obama campaign (and Kossaks!) know about. The report covers issues including caging, purging of voter rolls, ID requirements, malfunctioning machines, malfunctioning tabulators, difficulties in casting votes from abroad, and a slew of other problems. The difference is that they have detailed maps and solid examples. It is well worth the download time to read the entire report, called What If We Had an Election and Everyone Came to see if this could effect a state where you are working.
Early voting will help all the huge amount of new voters who have been registered to have their votes count. Diarists here have documented problems in early voting, but it is a lot easier to make sure these votes are counted if you have two weeks to deal with it rather than waiting for election day. Quoting the Guardian again:
The report identifies 12 states where there could be problems on election day: Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Virginia, and the district of Washington DC.
Folks from those states might want to pay particular attention. On November 4th, it might be too late.