As the nation waits with baited breath on November 7 to see if Ohio, America’s quintessential swing state, turns from red to blue, it increasingly looks like frustrated voters may have to wait days before knowing who are the winners of the contests for Governor and U.S. Senate.

Since at least the 2004 presidential election, Ohio has been known for voting practices that would make a backwater banana republic blush. And it looks like despite millions spent on new technology, things just haven’t gotten any better. The primary elections were a disaster, and now that Ohio has a no-excuse law for absentee ballots on the books, county election boards simply do not have the capacity to count the votes in a quick, accurate manner.

The situation is not helped by the fact that J. Kenneth Blackwell, all but certain to suffer a landslide defeat in the governor’s election, refuses to allow counties to scan in the absentee ballots prior to Election Day. The reason for this is simple: Blackwell and his struggling Republican pal Mike DeWine will lose heavily in Ohio’s urban counties, and the longer the results are delayed, the more doubt the GOP can cast on the outcome of the elections.

Blackwell’s self-serving interpretation of the law is an outrage, but with November 7 just around the corner, county election officials have neither the time nor the inclination to make Blackwell do what’s right.

It looks like November 7 could be a banner night for Congressmen Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland. If they win, let’s hope we all know it before Santa gives Karl Rove a lump of coal.

It’s late in the evening and we’re still recording, but this one’s too important to let slide for even a moment. Via Josh Marshall and dKos, the Washington Post has this article:

U.S. Senate candidate James Webb’s last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday . . . Election officials attribute the mistake to an increase in the type size on the ballot. Although the larger type is easier to read, it also unintentionally shortens the longer names on the summary page of the ballot.

Thus, Democratic candidate Webb will appear with his first name and nickname only — or “James H. ‘Jim’ ” — on summary pages in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, the only jurisdictions in Virginia that use balloting machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic of Austin.

Yes, that’s right. With two weeks to go before the election we learn that Jim “My Name Is Really Long” Webb will not have his name appear everywhere on the ballot in the three areas that make up his primary base of support. Meanwhile George Felix Allen, whose name is so much shorter, will be clearly identified. And sadly, Jean Jensen, secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, says that it will only be fixed in time for the 2007 statewide elections.

While we eschew profanity on this site, I think Trapper John over at Kos summed it up correctly:

Is is too much to ask for voting machines that work as well as, I don’t know, a fucking toaster?

“I don’t know how else I can say it. If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

-Dick Cheney on his 2008 plans.

Phew.