Yesterday on Air America's Laura Flanders show election fraud was the topic. Of interest was a discussion on how lines were much longer in urban Democratic polling places than in rural and suburban Republican ones.
Nov 13 - Air America - Laura Flanders Show - Audio
Jobs are scarce in Ohio these days. First priority is to feed the family by keeping your job or going to class. That is why it is so disturbing to hear that many Democrats could not afford to wait in line for over two hours, in many areas many more hours.
There are many stories that voting machines were plentiful in Republican districts, in fact many machines were moved there from the Democratic districts.
This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue, but of honoring one of the core rights of our nation. - Voting
Why have we turned our back on the hard working people of this country who can hardly afford to more than a few hours off from their job, else risk job loss. What about our faulting young voters for not going to the polls in record numbers - when this is clearly false. Polling stations in college towns reported many, many hours of waiting and confusion.
This issue in my humble opinion isn't being covered enough. Where are the pictures and videos showing these long lines?
Some stories below:
In Franklin County, where Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder is also the former Executive Director of the county's Republican Party, the county Board of Elections building looked like a bunker. Scores of city buses blocked parking spaces on the street outside, numerous concrete barricades surrounded the parking lot, and a metal detector was stationed at the only entrance. A phalanx of armed deputy sheriffs swarmed the only site where provisional voters could cast a guaranteed ballot. The Columbus Dispatch confirmed an Election Day Free Press story that far fewer voting machines were present in predominantly black Democratic inner-city voting wards than in the recent primary election and the 2000 presidential election, with their lighter turnouts. The reduced number of machines caused voters to wait up to seven hours and wait an average of approximately three hours. One Republican Central Committee member told the Free Press that Damschroder held back as many as 2000 machines and dispersed many of the other machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/983
Ohio
TURNOUT: Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell was predicting that 73 percent of the state's 8 million registered voters will go to the polls. That turnout would compare with 63 percent in 2000 and 77 percent in 1992, the highest since registration was required 28 years ago. Some northeast Ohio college students waited in a four-hour line to cast their ballots Tuesday. Several hundred Oberlin College students showed up to vote at a polling station that only had 15 voting machines. Elsewhere in the state, voters waited two hours or more. At one suburban Columbus elementary school, people chatted, talked on cell phones and read books as the lines snaked down at least two hallways. Some voters held places in line for others and helped people get in the correct line. At another precinct, strangers shared umbrellas as they stood outside in the rain.
http://www.thelouisvillechannel.com/politics/3883763/detail.html
Long lines are more than an irritation to those suffering through them, said one expert, who believes that they essentially impose a poll tax that divides those who can wait from those who cannot.
"After an hour [of waiting in line] you cross a threshold into a problem. After two hours you're getting into the disenfranchisement zone," said Ned Foley, a professor of law at Ohio State University.
http://www.electionline.org/index.jsp?page=Newsletter%20Nov%2011%202004_v2
Large numbers of people crowded polling places throughout the nation. In Gambier, Ohio, local residents and Kenyon College students stood for as long as seven hours in the rain to vote at two booths.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/special3/articles/1103elect-usturnout03.html