There is so much more passion in my corner of the GWN about the American election than there was about the Canadian election just a month ago – probably because the Canadian election was pure opportunism by Harper, and people saw through that, but I also believe that everyone knows the stakes of today’s election for the United States, Canada and the planet itself. As promised to Bmaz last week, I am working on my Dean Scream the minute the networks call the election for Obama!

I know, in Canada, we manage to count millions of paper ballots marked by pencil in a few hours on election night – partly because we have national election standards monitored by an independent federal (or provincial) body. The patchwork of local ballot standards across the US seems to me to be a huge part of the problem and the lack of a trusted elections process in the US, with partisan County boards and Secretaries of State another huge issue. I have been a poll captain, poll monitor, etc. in dozens of elections for the Liberal Party, and the number of actual disputes about voter eligibility, etc, was extremely rare in any election – usually it was a case of helping someone to get registered, not challenging them. In many US jurisdictions, frivolous challenges and arduous registration requirements at the polls seem to be a big part of the problem, and SOP for certain parties. Actually, I have always been upset that Elections Canada moved away from govt enumeration of all voters for each election as a cost-saving measure – Canada is a very mobile society, and people move a lot and have to establish residency again, which leads to a chilling effect on voting.