I live in a liberal Cleveland suburb (guess which) and three times I've had to call the county elections board to see if the most recent voter registration scandal has challenged my right to vote. So far, so good. Ohio will be Florida. At least it isn't boring here, but lord, the commericals.
I do not feel as confident as you do that Kerry will win Ohio. It should be a landslide, given how many jobs the state has lost, but it doesn't feel like it's going to go that way.
Florida will be. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3960679.stm How the hell do 58000 ballot papers just disappear without a hint of foul play?
It won't be California. Kerry will win by a few million, most of the surplus which could be scrapped because of the fycking EC. Does anyone want to buy surplus Kerry votes?
I'll put my money on the long shot, New Jersey, at the current 25-1 odds. A recent poll of "likely voters" has Kerry and Dubya dead even (46%, 46%, 2% Nader).
Because of yesterday's Kerry rally which drew 90,000 people in Madison, the city clerk's office stayed open three hours later than normal. Massive crowds went to vote early after Kerry's speech, and hundreds were still lined up when the office was scheduled to close at 5:00. The office stayed open long enough to allow all to vote. In my opinion, this is a great showing of democracy, allowing as many people to vote as possible. The GOP is saying it's blatant partisanship, considering that 99.9% of the people there were Kerry supporters. This could turn into a big issue in WI if the GOP formally challenges those ballots.
It will be Ohio, and we will have Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to thank for that. He wants to be Governor. Real Bad. Taft is term-limited up in two years. And Blackwell just is not going to be the establishment Republican candidate. That honor will go to either Betty Montgomery or Jim Petro (I'd bet on Petro). So he has decided to do a Margaret Thatcher: since he's a wrong demographic in the conservative party, he's going to outflank-to-the-right the country club conservative candidate. This is more effective than you non-Buckeyes would think, since the completely-Republican State Legislature had to raise taxes to keep from shutting every library in the state, and the Caveman Caucus rural Republicans will never, ever forgive that. Those folks definitely don't miss a Republican Primary, where they have far more power than you would think their numbers would support. Nevertheless, the economy on the ground for ordinary people is so bad here that, in the end, I still think Kerry will carry Ohio.