From yesterday’s post. A piece in today’s NYT notes that there is a large number of “wild card” voters (i.e., new voters who have registered but who aren’t really interested in following politics, don’t have firm political views, and may or may not show up at the polls) could have a significant impact on the vote next week. But the million dollar question is will they show up? As a sample, the NYT “looked up” a few of these new registered voters:

A visit to a Columbus neighborhood where Democratic groups registered voters this year shows the challenge the Kerry campaign faces. Of the six new registrants listed on county records on a single block, three had recently moved, one could not be found and one was listed at a nonexistent address.

Hm. This sounds like a problem to me, and not because of the wild card factor, but because of the large number of registration challenges floating around. Are Republicans wasting their time challenging voters who probably aren’t going to show up at the polls at all?

Also, today a nice long piece on your Sec. of State in today’s WaPo.

What the hell is going on back home in Ohio?? Is the national news overstating the problem here? I can only hope so, but 25,000 pending challenges sounds, well, ominous. How exactly are folks selecting voters to challenge? The most disturbing outcome, however, is raised by the NYT:

One of the gravest dangers is that partisan teams will challenge many, if not all, voters in selected precincts, with the goal of slowing voting to a standstill. In Ohio, every challenge will require a deliberation over whether the person in question should be allowed to vote. In presidential elections, lines in urban polling places are often hours long under normal conditions. If the challengers can add 10 minutes per voter, waiting times may become so long that thousands of voters will simply give up.

Knowing how slow the voting process already is in a state that still uses the terribly slow punchcard ballots in most locations, such challenges–especially in neighborhoods with a high concentration of hourly workers who already have to go out of their way to clear a chunk of time to vote–truly could keep voters away from the polls. And that’s bad news on BOTH sides.