As I reported earlier things have been going well in North Carolina.  

We have poll monitor programs in Wake, Guilford, Durham and Cumberland counties and they have not heard major problems from voters leaving the polls.

This year North Carolina so far is a model of what to do right.  Election Board officials had a voter education campaign explaining the ballots to voters, which aided in past issues about voting straight ticket (in NC you have to vote for President in addition to voting straight ticket).

Relatively low lines and minor problems is due in large part to the fact that over 40% of the state voting prior to Election Day.  Many of the major counties like Wake (Raleigh) and Mecklenburg (Charlotte) had over 50% early vote turn out.  This has aided election administration officials tremendously.

Generally things have been quiet on the Western front with a few hiccups.  Many voters have had to vote on provisional ballots because of the voter purge confusion or not showing up on voter rolls despite knowing they registered.

One major hiccup coming from Weld County.  There have been reports from Hispanic voters leaving polling location without voting because information is only provided in English ONLY.  Most of the voter information, including ballots were not translated into Spanish.  Some voters have waited at their polling location until a family member arrived that could translate this information.

I experienced something similar in 2006 in Iowa, where I had to translate the entire ballot for a family that could only read in Spanish. There were no pollworkers that could speak Spanish or materials translated.  
Colorado unlike Iowa does not have an English only law.

This morning I was asked to monitor my old home state of Pennsylvania for the Common Cause Protect the Vote project.  Our operations in PA are aided by more than 80 poll monitors across the state and by the operations of our colleagues in the Election Projecting coalition.  Here is what we learned:

Perhaps the biggest news maybe that Philadelphia Election Authorities may not count emergency ballots cast by voters because of broken machines until Friday.  John Bonifaz of Voter Action is challenging the decision but if the vote is close tonight it might be that we won't have the results in Pennsylvania until Friday.  Under the law, these ballots are to be treated the same as regular ballots.

Overall Pennsylvania is receiving the second most calls on the 1-888 Our-Vote hotline, just behind New York.  The majority of problems are occurring in Philadelphia, Allegheny and Delaware counties.  Like elsewhere in the country the primary problems people are experiencing deal with long lines caused by high voter turnout, voting machine breakdowns, and too few poll workers.  Another issue particular to the poll workers in Pennsylvania deals with the amount and type of training they receive to prepare for Election Day.   The law requires that counties "instruct election officers in their duties," but does not specifically require that each election officer be trained before s/he serves.

Below are some other issues that have arisen during the course of the morning vote that we will be monitoring throughout the day.

Not even rain can keep people from showing up to the polls.

So far, things have been going relatively smoothly in North Carolina.  We have not seen the machine malfunctions like we did in 2004.  

Most problems today have been from voters showing up to their polling location and not appearing on the voter rolls but they have been able to cast provisional ballots.  There have been a handful of locations mostly in Raleigh where polling locations opening late.  

One particular precinct in Raleigh had several caller into 1.866.OUR.VOTE that reported power outages causing the polling location to open late, people leaving the location and not having enough ballots on hand.

Thanks to the great leadership of our Common Cause North Carolina, Executive Director Bob Phillips!

Over the last few weeks voters rights advocates have been gearing up for problems and challenges on Election Day but they have also been in courts prior to E-Day to reinstate purged voters, resolve ID issues, demanding additional emergency ballots and other problems that have popped up around the country.

Already voter advocates can claim several victories  and lawyers are disseminated across the country thanks in part to the great work set in place by the Election Protection coalition.  Over 100 national, state and local organizations (including Common Cause) have joined together to create the largest non partisan voter rights advocate coalition in the county working to create equal opportunities for voters to participate in the political process.  The Election Protection Hotline (1.866.OUR.VOTE) has also been up and running since August providing information to voters with concerns about their polling location, absentee ballot requests and reports of voter intimidation.  

I have joked with my co-worker Tova that she has reached her limit on court victories for voters. Every time I see an email with the subject line: Good News, I breathe a sigh of relief. It certainly has been good news for us who want to ensure that every eligible voter gets to vote on E-Day and all votes are counted.

Talking Points Memo had a good summary of some of the top litigation stories across the country on Thursday as well as the Wall Street Journal. And for continuous breaking news on litigation happening around the country clck here.

Thanks to the 23rd Amendment, passed in 1961, Americans living in the District of Columbia have a right to vote for President of the United States.

But for more than 200 years, they have had no vote in Congress.  Tomorrow, they can vote for a nonvoting Delegate in the House.  And they can vote for shadow Senator and Rep - meaningless positions.

There is majority support in both the House and Senate for legislation to give DC a vote in Congress.  Following an election with expected record voter participation, a great example of democracy at work, the next Congress and the next President needs to take democracy one more step and give DC the vote in the first 100 days of the next Congress.

Some good news in the debate over youth voting came out of the primaries yesterday. This from The Fix at the WaPo:

Good news for the country too. 18-29 years olds are set to vote in greater numbers than over 65 year olds, maybe even this year, which means a new generation of engaged citizens is emerging. A strong democracy needs all its citizens to engage. It would even better if more young people took their parents to vote and vice versa. The strongest indicator of a young person voting is whether a peer, friend or family member has asked them to. I'm sure it also influences other generations.

Evidence of what Common Cause predicted in our report on the Indiana Primary for young voters is turning up in the news this evening.  Another victory for the architects of voter suprression in the state.

The reports of student voting problems are here, here and here.  New Voters Project has reported from the ground that students at St. Mary's College, a private institution were unable to vote because their college ID does not count under the law, even though public college IDs would - if they have a valid expiration date.

You don't have to turn people away for having the wrong ID, you just have to get people not to turn up because they know they don't have the ID and can't get it.  Some of the coverage above plays down the impact of the ID law on this primary.  Yes, 12 nuns might not seem like a huge number (it's not even a whole cloister), but it's important to remember that there was a whole convent full of retired nuns that didn't and couldn't turn up because they too didn't have the ID.

In the end, suppressing one vote, disenfranchising one citizen is too high a cost to bear for an unfounded fear which produces a bad law.  It's undemocratic, it's un-American.