On Eve of Election Day, Is the Nation's Voting System Ready?

Already more votes have been cast before Election Day than ever before. As of Saturday night, there were some 27 million absentee and early votes in 30 states, according to the Associated Press. But already, reports of voting irregularities, long lines, malfunctioning machines and badly managed polling stations are pouring in from across the country.

Despite documented irregularities, about a quarter of all voters will use electronic machines that offer no paper record to verify that their choice was accurately recorded. Voting rights groups have filed lawsuits against election officials in Pennsylvania and Virginia, saying they have not stocked enough paper ballots to prepare for the expected turnout.

In Colorado, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, voters have reported using touch-screen machines that have flipped their votes to the wrong candidate or party. Meanwhile, Florida has switched to its third ballot system in the past three election cycles, and glitches associated with the transition have caused confusion at early voting sites.

This all comes in the wake of voter suppression tactics that have seen tens of thousands of voters potentially lose their right to vote. In the battleground state of Colorado, voter rights activists recently won a major victory after state officials agreed to reinstate tens of thousands of people whose names had been removed from the rolls.

Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media culture and communication at New York University. He is the author of several books, most recently “Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000–2008.” His previous book is called “Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They”ll Steal the Next One Too."

Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media culture and communication at New York University. He is the author of several books, most recently “Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000–2008.” His previous book is called “Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They”ll Steal the Next One Too."

Report on PA voting filed by the American News Project,

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