On the 4pm call, we heard these problems continued. Lines at some polling places result in a 45 minute to 2 hour wait to vote. There are 43 precincts with very few or no ballots or provisional ballots. The problem of not having the supplemental voter registration lists continues with people voting on provisional ballots. We will need to check to be sure those ballots are counted. There are sporadic reports of people being targeted by race and challenged as to their right to vote. Student disenfranchisement is a large problem. At UCLA, Latino students have been asked to vote by provisional ballot even though their names appear on voter registration lists. At USC, students are being turned away since their names are not on registration lists instead of being offered provisional ballots. Students at San Diego State have also been turned away.

Election protection efforts have removed electioneering materials at a church polling site and stopped poll workers from tallying votes early.

The national Common Cause call at 2:30pm had these reports:
CC has been proactive counteracting deceptive practices such as saying because turnout was so large, Republicans could vote on Tues. and Dems on Wed., or that their polling place had changed, or that folks would be arrested for parking tickets, back child support, etc. if they voted. In response, CC created a PSA with Danny Glover saying folks should vote on Tues. and giving the election protection hot line number which has been widely aired on NPR and other news outlets. CC robo called 325,000 homes with the PSA.

We heard from these states:
North Caroline lost many votes last election but since then, CC has been active and passed same day registration and early voting. Working with students from the historic Black colleges, many new voters have been registered.

Pennsylvania has had problems with police officers and security guards coming into voting places and intimidating voters and election workers watching as people voted. Provisional ballots were not being utilized. CC has put 200 poll monitors in place covering 20% of polling places to solve such problems.

Ohio had one report of machines vote flipping which was corrected. Early voting, emergency paper ballots and the cooperation of voting officials with CC have made a difference in this state.

Florida has worked to reduce the long lines seen during early voting by extending voting hours. There remain glitches in FL: registration issues with voters taken off the rolls if their name on their drivers' license didn't exactly match that on their voter registration form. CC contacted 3,500 of the estimated 10,000 voters with this problem and advised them to ensure they could vote. The scanning equipment that FL replaced their touch screen voting machines with has broken down and poll workers are stacking ballots around the room instead of ensuring they remained secure until they could be scanned. The breakdown of the machines meant that voters couldn't verify if they under-voted or over-voted. The Secretary of State's phone line was down so poll workers couldn't verify registration.

Colorado CC won it's voting rights lawsuit to stop the SoS from purging voters close to Election Day.

Voters in Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky were all experiencing long lines and lack of ballots. In Pennsylvania there were reports of unwarranted use of provisional ballots.

The big picture is that US voting systems are made for low turnout elections and run by volunteers. Staff reported that new laws were needed to end deceptive practices; to revamp voter registration systems with same day registration; to create a campaign finance system that works; to allow early voting among other recommendations.