As we recoup from the excitement of Election Day, I want to share a couple of thoughts with you about this historic election, and about moving forward from here.

First, I am pleased to announce the passage in California of a redistricting initiative that will take from the hands of partisan lawmakers the job of drawing legislative district lines and give it instead to an independent, bipartisan commission. California Common Cause, led by Kathay Feng, was the architect of that campaign, which was also supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), the League of Women Voters and other groups. I will have more information on this victory to share with you soon. The votes on Proposition 11, as the redistricting initiative was known, were so close that we just learned of the victory last night. But we are so proud of the success there, and plan to work on redistricting reform in other states to make legislative races more competitive and lawmakers more accountable to their constituents.

Secondly, the voting itself on Election Day, was truly inspiring. More than 133 million people -- about 64 percent of the voting population, the highest turnout in 100 years -- came out to the polls, and many waited in lines that went on for hours. They stood in the rain, cold and heat. They held their ground when election officials said they could not vote, and called Election Protection volunteers for assistance. Our democracy is alive and thriving. While our goal is 100 percent participation, we are moving in the right direction.

The problems we feared - widespread electronic voting machine failures, challenges to voters on a large scale, mass confusion regarding registration issues - were isolated, due in large part to the work of groups like Common Cause, which worked for weeks before the election to mobilize and educate voters, and to work with election officials so that Election Day would go smoothly. The Election Protection Coalition, of which Common Cause was part, also played a large role in that success, answering tens of thousands of voter calls on its national, non partisan voter hotline staffed by trained volunteers and lawyers.

But while Election Day 2008 passed with fewer problems than the previous two national elections,  it underscored once again basic weaknesses in our voting systems, like lack of resource for more voting machines and more trained poll workers, both of which would go a long way toward moving lines faster. Rest assured that we at Common Cause will continue to press for federal and state reforms to assure that polling places can accommodate large turn-outs, and that we have an election system in which all eligible voters can cast their ballots, and that those votes are counted.

Wanted to report on the election protection efforts of Common Cause on Election Day 2008. I was on calls reporting on efforts in CA and the nation. As of 4pm, election protection efforts have fielded more than 72,000 calls nationwide and 5,096 calls in CA.

We heard on the 10am call that there were long lines in Los Angeles and that many polling places didn't have the supplemental registration lists for those registering late. So those folks had to vote by provisional ballot. In addition, many polling places in LA didn't have enough ballots. In some cases they didn't have any.

Rock the Vote reports that despite several tactics employed by various groups to suppress youth voter turnout, young people came out and were heard in record numbers.

It may not be glamorous, but there's something exciting about pictures like this -- what just one of the many Election Protection command centers look like around the country, with trained volunteers and legal professionals taking calls and logging it into our database for any follow up.

This is from LA, where polls remain open and calls continue to pour in.  You can view the breakdown of calls we've been getting all day at the OurVoteLive site.

At 6:30pm, I received some disturbing news from Amy Zeller, DM coordinator at Penn State. A Penn State student went to vote, her name was not listed in the voting rolls, and the poll workers refused to give her a provisional ballot. They claimed, "they were not giving out at provisional ballots." This, of course, is completely illegal. Every single person has the right to cast a provisional ballot as a last resort.

The student found Amy and told her what happened and the two of them marched back over the polling place and confronted the poll worker, demanding that they give the student a provisional ballot. The polls worker claimed that the local election office has instructed them to not hand out any provisional ballots. Amy and the student called the 1.866.OUR.VOTE hot line and got in touch with an election lawyer who then called the local election office. An election lawyer for the Obama campaign also got involved and argued on the student's behalf, demanding she be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.

One thing to watch in Colorado...

Overuse of provisional ballots.

According to Election Protection Officials, including Common Cause Colorado, many counties are immediately driving voters to use provisional ballots at any sign of a discrepancy.  Protocol is for poll workers and election officials to call their County Clerks to double check the database.

There has been reports of voter intimation early on in Weld County, were police officer were checking IDs and camped out in primarily Latino Voter Precincts.  Also at Colorado College.

Colorado Independent has been keeping good track of problems in Colorado.

After a day that featured few voter challenges at the polls -- a welcome break from 2004 -- we've just heard about intimidation in Lake County, home to Gary, Indiana, from one of our staff who is on the ground as a poll monitor.

Voters in Gary showed up with valid registration cards but were inexplicably left off the voting rolls.  At first they were turned away.  Then, when the county elections office decided to start letting people vote but to track them in a log to confirm their voting eligibility, two Republican attorneys who had been at multiple polling sites over the course of the day began challenging every one of these voters.

It is difficult to make general statements about whether or not Pennsylvania experienced serious systemic problems today. Days and weeks will be needed to do that sort of analysis and at this moment there are still a few hours to go at the polls. What is clear is that many of the problems in Pennsylvania, long lines, too few machines, too few well trained poll workers were predictable and could have been avoided. How long should voters be expected to stand in line? Certainly an hour is reasonable but some voters waited as long as three hours in State College, Philadelphia and in Allegheny County. At what point does a voter give up, forfeiting their right to vote for personal considerations--essentially being disenfranchised because of the government's inability to collect votes in a reasonably swift and accurate way?

Clearly, the system needs more resources, voters need more time to vote via early voting and an Election Day holiday, poll workers need training, and machines need to be accessible and trustworthy. When we address these issues in the future, and we must, most of us will just be curious about the results come Election Day, we won't have to wonder if the election was clean or if people were wrongly shut out of the process.

Summary of top problems Election Day Afternoon