Video Vote Vigil

Covington Jim points out a site collecting video and images of disturbances or other irregularities at or around the polls.

No Exit Polls in Ohio?

What is Ken Blackwell doing when he unexpectedly banned all media exit polls from within 100 feet of any polling station? I guess he fears they would challenge voters too or is this just another liberal bias charge against the media? FOX is part of the lawsuit trying to allow exit polling, so the right-wing media is at least in the fray with the rest of the mainstream press.

GOP Challengers From Outside County

Mean Jean Galvin of Make Ohio Blue has seen and reviewed the list of GOP challengers for Hamilton County. His review indicates that white suburbanites are being sent into most black neighborhoods. Also he indicates that the GOP is not sending any challengers to all-white suburbs.

Challengers Being Sworn in at BOE

A source indicates that 5 men were sworn in by Director of Elections John Williams today as Challengers. This took place at the Hamilton County BOE and the men were reported to have a list of individual voters to challenge. The number of voters on the list or the identity of the voters are unknown.

My guess would be that even with the court rulings, Challengers would be permitted at the BOE to challenge voter's eligibility to vote.

Panera WiFi

I think someone in comments said that Panera did not have very good WiFi. I am using it here on Beechmont right not to post this, and it actually works quite well. It might get worse if there were more users, which is likely true for all WiFi connections.

This post has unfortunately not been brought to you by the fine folks at Panera Bread. I eat there all the time and all I ever got out of it, beside good food/drink, was a free coffee mug at the grand opening of a location up in Mason.

Weeks?

Carl Weiser is reporting that provisional votes cannot be counted until November 13th by law. BOE's will be able to review each provisional voter's eligibility status, but can't see how they voted. I would assume absentee ballots are counted as soon after the polls close and after it is determined that they could make the difference in a race. This is going to be ugly.

All Challengers Banned From Ohio Polls

A Federal Judge has ruled voter challengers can not be deployed by any party or group in this year's election. This ruling coming at this late hour just adds more confusion to a confusing situation. I think overall this is the best way to run an election, but the timing is not good to really make it come true for the whole state.

What this does is put an increased burden on the county BOE's who will then get piles of challenges of every voter possible under law, but they were going to get that anyway, so in the big picture, I think this will make the polls go smother. That was after all the purpose. Ken Blackwell should be supporting this ruling. Will the AG try to appeal it today? The Ohio GOP stated in the article that they will appeal.

The mess is beginning to take form. Ground is being set for court challenges come Wednesday.

This story now is the Top Story on Yahoo. It is going to be a new turner.

UPDATE: A second Judge has ruled to ban the challengers.

UPDATE #2: Here is a copy Dlott's ruling (PDF).