corrente

The Fluffya Inkwire (hope I got that pronunciation right, I'm working on my accent:

A huge turnout of voters has caused many voting problems in parts of Pennsylvania and other battleground states, according to complaints streaming to a high-tech national voter hotline operated at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Um, in a democracy, I find it hard to see how the turnout of voters is causing problems, eh? Anyhow:

Frustrated callers using a toll-free number, 1-866-MYVOTE1, were complaining of long lines, closed polling places, intimidation and unresponsive election officials.

Problems were acute in Pennsylvania, where Allegheny and Philadelphia counties were among the top-ranked trouble centers nationally.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina and Florida were the states generating the most voter complaints.

According to Ken Smukler, president of InfoVoter Technologies, which operates the complaint line, 49,642 calls had reached the hotline today by 2 p.m.

Outpacing all other problems in Pennsylvania were those involving the voter registration process, Smukler said. More than half the callers complained they had not received voter registration cards or could not reach county officials to confirm that they were registered to vote.

Smukler said 6.9 percent of calls from Ohio, mainly in the Cleveland area, were coming from voters complaining of intimidation at the polls. In Pennsylvania, 2.9 percent of the callers were making similar complaints. Most of those calls were from Philadelphia.

"The problem of registration in Allegheny County is real," Smukler said. "Something isn't right. Allegheny County is the second largest county in the country generating complaints after Broward County in Florida."
(via The Inky)

Please, let Philly and Pittsburgh not be the Floridas of 2004...