Got an email from a friend in Georgia yesterday, who writes in part:
I've signed up to be an Obama poll watcher and will be assigned in my county, which surprises me as this is the only solidly Democrat county in the 130+ counties of the state outside Atlanta. The training session heavily emphasized the voter ID requirements which as I write are still being challenged in court.
We've been given instructions to keep a close eye on the id-checking process and offer assistance to voters who seem to be having problems getting checked in. Given that the Sect. of State (Rep. gubernatorial hopeful Karen Handle) send out misinformation about the requirements by postcard to all GA households, it is likely that poll workers might not have gotten the word about all the forms of ID that are acceptable, as well as rules for using provisional ballots. The Obama thinking is that we don't want any first-time voters to be discouraged from casting ballots by ill-informed, overstressed poll workers.
We have been given a very thorough written procedure for checking that the voting machines are zeroed before the polls open, sealed after voting, taking counts of number of votes cast, number of voters waiting, and approximate wait times at predetermined intervals throughout the day, checking totals from each machine against a master count, and reporting any irregularities to the election boiler room (the trainer's term) for possible immediate legal action - "lawyers are standing by to take your calls..." We even received a list of "what to bring and what to leave at home", just like going to summer camp. Unbelievable organization!
Pretty impressive. One still doubts that Georgia will turn blue, but remember that the Senate race there is close (the incumbent is the appalling Republican who ran an ad tying together images of the previous Democratic incumbent -- a man who left three limbs in Vietnam -- with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein) and one or two House seats are in play. So every voter the above operation gets out and protects at the polls will vote in those races too.
