So it's Voting Day

I voted last week - so I feel like I'm just observing.

I think the whole thing is quite discouraging - when you can't trust the electronic machine to count your vote correctly. (See also Hacking Democracy). And I think that that discouragement is a tactic. It's a well known concept that a reduced turnout favors Republicans.

This year there have been reports of various voter suppression tactics:

SPEAKING OF PROBLEM PHONE CALLS...

Jensen says state officials alerted the Justice Department yesterday to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters that attempted to misdirect or confuse them about election day. She adds she has now been contacted by FBI agents. The FBI in Richmond refuses to comment.
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One example:

Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested. A recording of his voicemail can be found here

The transcript from his voicemail reads:

"This message is for Timothy Daly. This is the Virginia Elections Commission. We've determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote on Tuesday. If you do show up, you will be charged criminally."
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There have been different Republican groups making "Robo-calls" that start out sounding like Democrats - essentially to piss people off. Supposedly they say that they are Republicans at the end - should anyone bother to listen to the whole thing.

Republicans Deny Subterfuge as Phone Barrages Anger Voters

...Some voters, sick of interrupted dinners and evenings, say they will punish the offending parties by opposing them in today's elections. But critics say Republicans crafted the messages to delude voters -- especially those who hang up quickly -- into thinking that Democrats placed the calls.

Republicans denied the allegation, noting that their party acknowledges its authorship at the recorded calls' end. After citizens' complaints in New Hampshire, however, the National Republican Congressional Committee agreed to end the calls to households on the federal do-not-call list, even though the law exempts political messages from such restrictions.
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Also: In a Tense Election Year, Push Polls Flourish

Not only has the Virginia-based company been making millions of calls on behalf of the Economic Freedom Fund, the GOP attack group funded by the money man behind the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, but the firm has also worked for Common Sense Ohio, a conservative nonprofit group active in the closest Senate races.

These groups go to ccAdvertising for one reason: the company is effective. It provides tremendous but targeted reach, largely under the radar -- and arguably without scruple. You can hear recordings of ccAdvertising's work this election here (from Indiana's 9th, funded by the EFF - a call a polling expert called "egregious") and here (from Tennessee, funded by Common Sense Ohio).

Joseph boasted to Mother Jones that "he can handle 3.5 million calls per day, each one costing less than 15 cents." By comparison, approximately 120 million people voted in the 2004 election. In Indiana, where ccAdvertising flooded the 9th District with robo calls (only to be stopped by a state law that prohibits automated calls), the company admitted in court that it maintains a database of 1.7 million Indiana phone numbers, and that its calling system may dial each number as many as three times. (ccAdvertising lost their challenge of the state's law and has recently appealed.)

As hard as ccAdvertising works to smother its targeted voters with calls, it also works to cloak its identity. So if you get a call from ccAdvertising, you won't know it's them. Although the calls tend to disclose through which organization the call was ordered, the name on a recipient's caller ID is generic-sounding, like "Election Research" or, as in the case of the recent calls to Maryland and Tennessee, "P RSRCH 2006." The company maintains a stable of business aliases like those to stay anonymous. It even went so far as to make calls in a couple states under another business' name.
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There have also been reports of voter "flipping' where someone thinks they voted for one person and then the final page says that they voted for someone else. Some machines do not have that page -that would even tell them.
Election Problem Log - 2006
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And today:

Form: Talking Points Memo

So many phone calls about voting questions/problems in Columbus, Ohio, that the county's phone system crashed:
Franklin County's phone system was returned to service about 90 minutes after it collapsed today under a crush of calls from voters and poll workers.

In Pennsylvania - Voter smashes touch-screen machine in Allentown

In California (yesterday) - Thief grabs voting machine from election official's car

She said the precinct officers are directed to keep the voting machines in "secure locations" such as their homes prior to their being set up in the polling place. (That seems pretty odd to me)

If you have problems you can call: 1-866-OURVOTE

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Update - the Democrats took the House and maybe the Senate. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.