Early voting satellite centers in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago will remain open following a Wednesday ruling in Lake Superior Court.

In her ruling, Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider struck down Republican efforts to have the satellite voting locations deemed illegal and shut down.

The judge granted a petition by Democrats and the United Steelworkers union to keep the sites open on grounds the centers provide better access to early voting to minority communities, which don’t have the time or transportation to reach the early voting center in Crown Point.

From: http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2008/10/22/updates/breaking_news/doc48ff60a09dbea615856809.txt

As an example of how MSM covers stories that are potentially election-altering, witness the “mob”of”angry local voters”that were harassing clerks trying to do recounts in Florida in 2000.

Just *how*long did it take for the pictures to have real names attached. Names that were of well-known political operatives who were there at GOP expense from around the country.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/police-prepare-for-unrest-2008-10-21.html

@Angela: Between your comments here and on the Troy Davis thread, I’m detecting a pattern – one that indicates that it’s probably not worth it to argue with you.

@charlotte: As a professional techie, the low security standards and hack vulnerability of the electronic voting machines seriously scares me. There are just too many ways to mess with those machines as they are currently designed. I take comfort in using the old mechanical lever voting machines that we still have here in Brooklyn, though I have no actual stats on relative accuracy to back up that sense of security. I’ve actually never used a voting machine that wasn’t a mechanical lever machine.

@DaisyDeadhead: Listen to Caroline! Of course, only do what makes you feel safe, but we can’t let ourselves be intimidated away from either voting or helping/encouraging others to vote. Maybe if you work with a decent sized group of people or make phone calls or something like that?

People found out when they voted in state primaries and got the wrong ballots. In federal elections like the presidency, they ask you which one you want because it’s an open primary state for presidential elections though some polling places assume you want the one you’re registered for.

I do think there could be some hate group activity–probably most of it from somewhere else. In my more than 20-odd years in NC, I only heard of a handful of Klan rallies. All came from other states, consisted of six or ten people, and were mightily protested by the residents of the state. Honestly, I’m more worried about the organizing efforts of the fundamentalist Christians there than anything else. They are very influential in the state, and they will push for voter purges. That scares me.

That said… This is certainly a different political environment than I have ever witnessed there, and I can’t really predict what will happen. NC has never been in play for Democrats in the presidential race in my lifetime (that is, not since 1976), and I’m really excited to see the state that elected Jesse Helms year after year after goddamn year leaning blue. I think that’s indicative of a political shift in this country, and it gives me some hope.