Here in New York, I didn't need ID, but I did have to match my signature to the one on a copy of my orginal registration card in front of the poll worker. I think that matching a signature in person is a little tougher than getting an ID, fake or real, which can be done by mail.

The only problem with the signature system is that -- in my case anyway -- the original is 20 years old and my handwritting is much sloppier now than it was back then.

The problem with signatures is that it is a completely subjective comparison and poll judges are partisan operatives. Poll workers arent trained to compare thousands of signatures.

In my case, matching wasn't part of the process. The poll workers had no access to a signature of record.

Here in Ohio we are seeing turnouts that match or exceed those of 2004. Lines were blocks long before the polling places even opened. Two hour waits are supposedly not uncommon regardless of where you are voting. (This despite 25% of the votes already been cast in early voting, and twice as many machines as 4 years ago).

I'm in a upper middle class highly educated technical business environment that appears to lean strongly McCain (80%?), but Obama has been in the past few weeks dominating the bumber sticker numbers around town. However, McCain has - contrary to claims by some online commentators - an extremely solid ground game in Ohio. Based on what I've seen, Obama's people are nearly invisible and McCain has put alot of people on election day duty to get out the vote, so despite the fact that McCain is far from popular among the base I expect we will see solid turnout on all fronts.

Up until McCain voted for the bailout plan, I would have told you that McCain would beat the polls and win Ohio, but with the economic fallout and McCain seeming to be a follower - not a leader - I have to think the edge is to Obama here.

On the good side, Ohio requires proof of residency to cast your vote (valid Ohio driver's licence for example), which given the hundreds of thousands of fraudalant voter registration forms submitted in Ohio is a very good thing. On the bad side, hundreds of thousands of votes have already been cast early and there are reports in the local press of heavy turnout amongst the dead, people from out of state, and assorted fish (addresses in the Ohio river) in early voting. No one knows how many fraudalant votes were cast or what percentage were caught, but if the vote is close in Ohio - either way - there could be huge legal and moral fallout. I expect the Republicans will spin that the defeat in Ohio was do to the democratic political machinery - just as the Democrats did four years ago.

I'm in North Carolina. Turnout was heavy early, but I got in quickly @ 10 o'clock (I have an hour block before I teach lab). Signature required only, no ID. Very quiet, but 210 people had already voted in 2.5 hours.

A friend of mine says there was an hour wait outside his voting place at 6am this morning, but the line went very quickly, and was gone by 7:30.

5 minutes, no issues in Montgomery County Texas. One lady was mildly upset when she was asked to cast a provisional ballot. Another lady had some mis-matched info that took all of 90 seconds to straighten out. Nothing to it.

They didn't have any "I Voted" stickers, though.

No lines at what is traditionally the precinct with the highest voter turnout in the city. This wasn't surprising though in a state capitol where all state workers have the day off.

The big news this year was the change to a new voting system. After 2000, the county used federal money to purchase the Populex touch-screen system, but Populex did not sell enough to justify maintaining its certification through continued testing. The county is considering a lawsuit, but Populex may be broke.

The county now uses paper ballots (fill in the oval with a standard pen). I think it was quicker and easier (as do others I've talked with). The only oddity was that after taking the completed ballot in its protective sleeve to the table to run it through the optical scanner, a helper removed the sleeve and fed the ballot. While I don't believe the helper was trying to read ballots, the privacy lapse at that point will likely be discussed after the election.

No ID check. Signature comparison with specimen signature card.

I wonder if people are just jazzed up and voting first thing in the morning? No question voter turnout will be high, but i don't know that it will be as historic as it is being portrayed.

Mark B.,
Two thoughts about your #2 comments.

1. poll workers don't need to compare thousands of signatures. They just need to compare two signatures at time. Not that difficult a task, really.

2. poll workers are not trained to spot fake IDs either. & what if I had a beard when my ID photo was taken, but don't have one now. What if I gained weight. One way or another, if you are depending on poll workers to verify authenticy, you are asking untrained volunteer partisans to once a year, under stressful conditions, perform tasks they probably aren't up to.

Best way to reduce voter fraud: get everyone to vote and create long lines, thereby reducing the likelihood & opportunity for anyone to try to vote more than once a day.

This is exactly what i've been warning about:

"GOP Election Board members have been tossed out of polling stations in at least half a dozen polling stations in Philadelphia because of their party status.

A Pennsylvania judge previously ruled that court-appointed poll watchers could be NOT removed from their boards by an on-site election judge, but that is exactly what is happening, according to sources on the ground"

link

The system of election judges appointed in a partisan manner is just nuts. By the time this can possibly be sorted out its going to be too late.

"1. poll workers don't need to compare thousands of signatures. They just need to compare two signatures at time. Not that difficult a task, really."

True, but thousands in a row. How much attention can they really be paying after a few minutes? These are volunteers that come to hand out ballots, not prevent fraud.

"2. poll workers are not trained to spot fake IDs either. & what if I had a beard when my ID photo was taken, but don't have one now. "

True, but just matching the ID to the registration is a huge step in the right direction- and thats an objective comparison. Just telling somebody my name and relying on signatures is purely subjective. Its good to have at least a single objective reference even if its not foolproof. And beyond that i think people are better qualified to compare faces than signatures. We compare faces constantly in our lives. How often does your average layman compare signatures? I wouldnt have a clue where to begin or what constituted a red flag.

"Best way to reduce voter fraud: get everyone to vote and create long lines, thereby reducing the likelihood & opportunity for anyone to try to vote more than once a day."

I don't know about that, you could flip the argument and say the cheaters (who by definition are quite motivated) will be clogging the lines and disincentivising legitimate voters who dont have time to wait.

The best solution is to present a photo ID like everywhere else in our lives. I agree they should be distributed by the states for no fee.

Voted early in TX. Used an electronic machine for the first time ever. I had to show my drivers license, Voter registration or "State" ID. I showed my voter registration. They scanned the bar code, printed out a label for me to sign and gave me an access code. No paper trail that I could see of my vote, but the label was pasted on to a big voter registration sheet, then I signed. I voted just before lunch and there was a steady stream of voters the whole time I was there, about 20 minutes. Could have been done sooner, but I didn't vote straight ticket.

I voted just as the polls opened in Florida. I had to show a photo ID, and was glad I did. The line was relatively short when I got there but relatively long when I left. When I was there, no one was talking politics, and everyone was polite.

On a more local (Illinois) point, I did not receive the required notice that was supposed to explain inaccuracies in the ballot's description of the constitutional convention referendum. Though I can't swear that the notice wasn't taped to a wall or something. Lawsuits appear likely. Information on reporting problems can be found here.

In my area (Santa Clara, CA), a lot of good looking girls were out voting.

This is bad news for McCain, though (at the pop. vote level).

Seriously, though, I did not like how they don't check IDs. They only ask for last names. In places like this one where there are lots of Indians, Chinese, and Vietnamese, the list has TONS (literally dozens or even hundreds) of people with last names like Chang, Wang, Liu, Tseng, Huang, Kim, Nguyen, Patel, Singh, and Srinivasan.

Virtually all Vietnamese people are 'Nguyen'. Tons of Koreans are 'Kim'. Most Chinese fit into just 6-7 last names like Chang, Wang, etc. Almost all Sikhs are 'Singh'.

I could easily vote twice or more if I wanted to. I won't do it, but others may.

Here is a video of Black Panthers trying to prevent people from voting

Talk about casting a negative pall over a Presidency that Obama would have won anyway without this sort of baggage.

I am wondering if this will actually cost Obama's votes, with the Panthers scaring away young single white women and little old ladies who would have voted for Obama.

No line at my polling place, mid-afternoon in a small town in Sonoma County, CA. My (paper - sharpie marker) ballot set was given to me upon examination of my voter reg. slip that had been mailed to me earlier.

Did not loiter to see if they checked full names in general; they did not ask for ID, but they did check / confirm full name and address for me against the reg. slip.

I'm holding three paper stubs for the ballots I cast with a total of eight ID digits on them. Hurray for paper.

GK
Despite the a@@#$%& who showed up at a polling place and embarassed himself in a heavily Democratic and AfricanAmerican pollling place no little old white lady or man was turned away not did they intimidate any body AfricanAmerican whom thought some drunk was paid by the GOP to be an A@@#$%&.

Voting quick and easy at 5pm at local place. Everyone working is tired though and it is another hour and a half to go in the rain.

As to voter suppression some A@@#$%& decide it would be a good idea to hack in to the George Mason University system and inform the students via a dean that voting was postponed till tomorrow. Considering the audit trail has already shown it coming from the Democratic party's computer system in VA I would be more disappointed to find out as a parent I am spending that much money to find out my child didn't know what the rules are.

As to the crack about Cleveland and fraudulent voter registration it isn't clear to you that it is the stupidest thing ACORN could do because as you correctly point out you need to have ID to vote. Given that many of the people they registered are likely to have problems anyway they are going to make it worse but putting phony voters at the polling place and cause further delay. Didn't you read that BY LAW ACORN must turn in all registrations and ACORN has repeatedly told the correct officials that they think the people they hired have taken the money and falsified records?

[ Minor format edits -- M.F. ]

Wow, Robert, that has to be the most incoherent comment here I've read in a while. Put down the booze, man. Sober up, and then go for coherence.

[ Robert ran into a quirky html command--absent Preview, not his fault. -- M.F. ]

It would appear that alot of the early crowds at the polling places where attempts to beat the crowds. Afternoon lines are short to non-existant, and when I voted there seemed to be no problems. I don't trust the electronic machines, but at least they are producing a paper copy that is visible at the time I enter information.

I held my nose and voted for McCain, if only because as someone in IT the IT schenanigans the Obama campaign has pulled just outright angers me enough vote against him. My wife couldn't vote for McCain (for which I don't blame her in the slightest), so she protest voted by voting for the Constitution party candidate, which even if a waste and even if it would be scary to put them in power, at least signals in the right direction.

I protest voted on the congressional candidate, pulling the lever for a Libertarian candidate I knew next to nothing about. It's a wasted vote, but I knew nothing about either main party candidate that was positive. Pat Tiberi does nothing for me, so if out he goes, I could care less. One thing I'm not is a party pundit.

I'm really new to the city, so I felt drastically underinformed on local issues, which is bad because usually it is the local issues that really matter. I ended up skipping most of the local portion of the ballot. I promise I'll do better next time.

I was pleasantly surprised to have the choice between paper and electronic balloting (i chose paper, quite firmly i might add).

And the poll workers twice applauded first time voters that came in. It was really kinda moving, even for an old cynic like me. Embarassed the hell out of the kids though.

No line, breezed in, breezed out.

No lines for me, I voted by mail a couple of weeks ago since there was a chance I'd be out of town. My wife reports a very short line of eight or so at the polling spot we share with two other precincts. No substantial delays, she apparently spent more time chatting with two neighbors, one in line to vote and one a poll worker.

People get all in a tiff over not having to show ID, but the truth is that requiring ID has been shown to suppress the vote far more than not requiring it leads to multiple voting. Remember that if you intend to vote multiply, you don't know whether the real person will show up. If many people had "already voted" when they showed up, it would certainly come to light. The only reliable way you could do it illegally would be if you knew someone wasn't showing up and claimed to be them. I'm sure this happens. But the number of votes we gain by not requiring ID outweighs it. Not counting someones legitimate vote is as bad as counting someone's illegitimate vote.

Not counting someones legitimate vote is as bad as counting someone's illegitimate vote.

I disagree. If you're denied the vote due to lack of ID, you have recourse. You can go retrieve your ID. You can cast a provisional ballot. Worst case is you know better next time. And it's impossible to silently block large numbers of votes. It will anger a lot of people who will rightfully raise a fuss.

If someone casts an illegitimate, no one knows. There's no way to ameliorate it in this election or correct for it in the next. And if you find a way to subvert the election procedures, you can potentially scale it up to very large numbers.

Both errors are bad, but I believe that false positives are a much larger problem than false negatives. Our election procedures should be biased towards preventing false positives.

The only reliable way you could do it illegally would be if you knew someone wasn't showing up and claimed to be them. I'm sure this happens.

Not if you were able to place 10's of thousands of names you knew to be invalid on the rolls. But who would do something like that?