Students working on Democracy Matters (DM) campuses throughout Pennsylvania have been sending in good reports for the past couple hours after getting through the initial long lines and minor confusions that occurred when the polls opened.

Amy Zeller, DM coordinator at Penn State University, just called and reported that by 1pm 3,600 students had voted in the campus' main polling place.  Election officials said that number accounted for 30% of the registered voters in that precinct.  If voting continues at this pace, by the end of the day there should be some tremendous numbers to report.

Doug Edwards, DM coordinator at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA has been sending in solid reports all day from his precinct; no long lines and very little confusion.  He voted successfully this morning and is now working with the League of Young Voters fielding calls and scheduling rides for people to get to the polls.  He did say that their were reports from the 4th district that some of the election officials did not inspire much confidence and some voters feared their votes may get lost or go uncounted.

Emily Kinkead, DM coordinator at Bloomsburg University, has been giving out hundreds of voting rights palm cards since this morning, arming student voters with the information about ID requirements and the 1.866.OUR.VOTE hotline.

Jen Truss, DM coordinator at Gettysburg College, has been reporting a lot of excited students casting ballots.  Despite large voter turnout the lines are moving quickly with students waiting for only 30 minutes.

Matt Courter, DM coordinator at Lock Haven University has reported that some students have had trouble figuring out their appropriate polling place and that others never received their voter registration cards in the mail.  He has been advising them to call the 1.866.OUR.VOTE hotline to locate their polling place.  He has been telling those who registered and never got a card to cast a provisional ballot and follow up with the county registrar afterwards to cross check their ballot with the names on the backlog of unprocessed registrations.

Things will most likely pick back up later this afternoon and this evening as the polls near closing time.  Our students are there ready to help alleviate any problems.

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.

Rumors starting circulating this morning that students at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA received an email from the Provost's Office informing them that the election had been moved to November, 5th.  I contacted the Provost's office to verify the validity of this rumor and it turns out the rumor is true.

Someone gained access to a closed "all student" email list early this morning and sent out the bogus email, clearly designed to confuse voters and suppress turnout.  The office found out about it soon after and sent out an immediate correction this morning.

The Provost's office has also contacted the police and the FBI to try and track down who was responsible for sending the email.  They have also been fielding calls from students and parents who are concerned about the occurrence.

Stay tuned...

During my travels through PA last week, I met a handful of students who were pleased to learn about the Election Protection hot line because they had registered over a month ago but had yet to receive their voter registration cards.  Due to the record amount of new registrations that this Presidential campaign has inspired, there are a number of election offices across the country that had a backlog of registrations and were not able to enter the data in time.  This is a particular problem for campuses with large student populations.

Students who experience this problem should fill out a provisional ballot as instructed and then immediately call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and find out how they can ensure their ballot is counted.

Julie Wachtenheim at Illinois State University has reported long lines and is doing her part to ensure that students wait as long as they need to in order to cast a ballot in this election.  She is handing out Sudoku puzzles to voters to keep them entertained while standing in line.

Reports are already coming in from Pennsylvania that lines at Penn State University had nearly 1,000 people at 7am.  It noe looks like the lines have gone down and they are handling the traffic pretty well.  Check out this clip shot for Video the Vote.