By GottaLaff
Brace yourselves for potential voter suppression:
Elections officials across Washington are scrambling to recruit enough poll workers for the November election, plastering banks and grocery stores with posters and advertising in newspapers to prepare for what could be a record turnout.
And who would comprise most of that record turnout? Democrats, who else?
The Virginia State Board of Elections reported last week that despite a major push to attract workers this summer, the state was still about 1,600 workers short of the number needed to handle the anticipated crush. The greatest shortages are in fast-growing places, including Loudoun County.
"If we don't get enough, that means longer lines, longer waits and then disgruntled voters," said Dianna Price, secretary of the Loudoun County Electoral Board.
Election fraud. Disenfranchisement. You know, elections as usual.
Statewide turnout could top 85 percent, Mickley said. In the 2004 election, it was 78 percent.
Dan Murphy [a spokesman for the District's Board of Elections and Ethics] said a recruiting drive for the Sept. 9 congressional and council primary as well as the buzz surrounding the presidential race should help.
It couldn't hoit.
"The higher profile the election, the more people want to be a part of it," Murphy said. "We're very optimistic that we're going to reach our goal for November."You big tease. Was that a head fake? It''s all going to be okay after all? Re-e-eally?
Although the state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, Virginia's growing and shifting electorate is now key to the Democratic strategy for winning the White House. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is likely to draw his strongest support from Northern Virginia, which helped tip the state to Democrat James Webb in the 2006 U.S. Senate election and Democrat Timothy M. Kaine in the 2005 gubernatorial election. Polls show Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), neck and neck in Virginia. If the race remains close as Nov. 4 approaches, turnout could soar. [...]
A shortage of trained poll workers in Maryland was partly blamed for widespread problems during the 2006 primary, when dozens of polling places opened late and some voters were turned away without casting their ballots. In 2002, results of a congressional primary were delayed for hours as Montgomery County poll workers struggled with new voting machines. In this year's presidential primary in the District, some poll workers declined to make touch-screen voting machines available because they were intimidated by the technology.
I do believe in poll workers, I do believe in poll workers, I do I do I do, I do believe in poll workers.
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