Voting machines began wreaking havoc the minute the polls opened Tuesday, delaying voters in dozens of Indiana and Ohio precincts and leaving some in Florida with little choice but turn to paper ballots instead.

In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new voting machines that they couldn't get to start properly.

"We got five machines - one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.

Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts. Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly.

"We are working with precincts one-by-one over the telephone to get the problem fixed," Wenger said.

With a third of Americans voting on new equipment and voters navigating new registration databases and changing ID rules, election watchdogs worried about polling problems even before the voting began Tuesday.

Although turnout generally is lower in midterm elections, this year was the deadline for many of the election changes enacted in the wake of the Florida balloting chaos of 2000.

The 2002 Help America Vote Act required or helped states to replace outdated voting equipment, establish statewide voter registration databases, require better voter identification and provide provisional ballots so qualified voters can have a say if something goes wrong.

"There has not been an election in decades that has had this much change," said Wendy Weiser, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school.

Control of Congress is also at stake this year, with all 435 House seat and 33 of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs, along with 36 governors' offices. Because individual congressional races are generally decided by fewer votes than presidential contests, any problems at the polls are more likely to affect the outcome.

According to Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm, 32 percent of registered voters were using equipment added since the 2004 elections.

Nearly half of all voters were using optical-scan systems that ask them to fill in blanks, with ballots then fed into a computer. Thirty-eight percent were casting votes on touchscreen machines that have been criticized as susceptible to hackers.

Election experts say both types of voting machines are bound to cause trouble.

Touchscreens may display incorrect ballots or fail to boot properly. Voters using optical-scan equipment might circle a name instead of filling in a box.

Poll workers also might not be adequately trained to handle the unexpected, which can cause delays as voters were already discovering Tuesday.

Voting-machine vendors said they had thousands of workers on the ground and special command centers to handle any problems.

"Elections have hundreds and hundreds of moving parts, and most of those parts have to do with humans," said Michelle Shafer, spokeswoman for Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. "There will be isolated issues throughout the nation I'm sure. That's just the normal part of elections. Overall we feel confident things will go pretty well."

Just getting to the right polling place with all the right identification posed a challenge for some voters.

Many states established voter registration databases for the first time, and many found problems as they tried to match drivers' license and Social Security data with the voter rolls.

Someone may have a middle initial or use "Jr." on one list but not the other, or "Doug" and "Douglas" may be interchanged in records. Data entry errors also occur.

Although not required by federal law, some states also passed new voter identification requirements, in many cases calling for a government-issued photo ID, rather than just a utility bill.

Courts have struck down specific ID requirements in several states, but election watchdogs warned that poll workers might still mistakenly turn voters away. Missouri's chief elections official, Robin Carnahan, said she was asked three times to show a photo ID, despite a court ruling striking the requirement down there.

In one of the worst fiascoes, Maryland election officials forgot to send the cards primary voters needed to activate electronic machines at their polling places, and some voters had to cast provisional ballots on scraps of paper.

In New Mexico, some voters complained they had received phone calls giving them incorrect information about where in vote.

Several Florida counties stocked up ahead of the election with extra voting machines, paper ballots and poll workers on standby. Apart from the state's infamous chads in 2000, Florida voters have struggled with poorly trained poll workers, trouble tallying electronic votes and precincts opening late or closing early.

Secretary of State Sue Cobb said she didn't expect serious problems with the touch-screen voting machines this time.

"History has shown that the machines are far more accurate than paper so we're quite confident in it," Cobb said. "There is absolutely no reason to believe that there will be any security issues, any hacking going on."

A coalition that includes the NAACP planned to send nonpartisan poll monitors to some Florida counties. The Justice Department also was deploying polling watchers at potential trouble spots nationwide.

The polls are open, but voting machine problems have been reported at several polling places in Allegheny County.

County elections officials are not saying what's wrong or how long it will take to fix the problems.

Technical issues are preventing voters from casting ballots at the following locations:

* (UPDATE: 4 of 5 machines repaired) St. Thomas Church, Gibsonia (Richland District 4)
* Whitehall Methodist Church, Weyman Road, Whitehall Borough
* Christina Church Assembly of God, Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park
* Robinson Elementary School, Route 60, Robinson Township
* New Wilmington, American Legion Hall, Route 158.
* Addison Hall, 2136 Elmore Square, Hill District
* Vann School, 631 Watt Street, Hill District
* Emory United Methodist Church, 3225 North Highland Avenue, East Liberty
* Cuddy Fire Hall, Millers Run Road, South Fayette Township
* Berkeley Hills Fire Hall, Ross Township, Ward 1- District 1
* Lemington Elementary School, Lemington Avenue, Lincoln-Larimer
* Presbyterian Church, Hay and Biddle Street, Wilkinsburg
* South Hills Assembly of God, 2725 Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park (paper ballots are being used)

A court hearing has been scheduled this morning to consider extending voting hours, perhaps by as much as 2 1/2 hours, Virtually all Delaware County precincts reportedly experienced problems with voting machines this morning.

But an officials with the Delaware County Clerks office said all machines are currently working and precincts are open.

The problems were caused by the voting cards that are used to bring up the ballots on the electronic touch screen voting machines.

The machines were used for the first time in the primary and this is the first general election for them to be used in Delaware County.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. this morning with steady rain outside as voters began voting for elected officials ranging from their congressman to Township Trustee. The National Weather Service predicted occasional rain today, with most of it falling before 10 a.m. Today's mid-term election in Delaware County and East Central Indiana comes with Republicans calling the shots in many branches of government, from the White House to the Center Township trustee's office.

And the trustee's race -- between two-term Republican incumbent Richard Shirey and Democratic challenger Marilyn Kay Walker -- could be the baseline race to determine whether the local Democratic organization can take back an office that was long seen as a Democratic stronghold, or whether local Republicans have overcome low popularity ratings for their national leaders.

Other high-profile races being decided today include Indiana Senate District 26 where the margin of victory -- for either Republican Andrew Phipps, Democrat Sue Errington or Independent Pat L. Smith -- could be close, according to past elections, along with the contest for Delaware County Commissioner District 3 between incumbent Republican Larry Crouch and Democrat Larry Bledsoe.

Both of those races were decided for less than one percent of votes cast in the last mid-term election in 2002, when several races produced victory margins of fewer than 150 votes.

The 2002 mid-term election saw 33,526 Delaware County voters cast ballots with 3,131 absentee ballots cast before the polls opened.

At noon Monday, 3,946 absentee ballots had been cast, reflecting a 25-percent increase in absentee voting.

Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger was not ready to predict a 25-percent hike in total turnout, but said there would be more voters based on heavy absentee voting by both parties and others. State law now allows voters to cast absentee ballots without having an excuse.

Allie Craycraft, vice chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party, said he believed dissatisfaction with the Iraq War, the economy and other issues would trickle down to local races.

"In 1994, we saw that trend in Congress," Craycraft said about a year that saw Republicans virtually sweep national and local races.

Craycraft is retiring after 28 years as Delaware County's senator. He won his seventh and final term in 2002 by 609 votes over Phipps.

But the Craycraft family is represented on today's ballot. The senator's son, Steve, is running for Delaware County clerk, facing Republican Bobby Adams, a friend of Delaware County Republican Party Chairman Kaye Whitehead.

Whitehead does not anticipate the national wave that could put Democrats in control of Congress will impact local Republican officeholders.

"If you look at it, Democrats have not been critical of how Republicans have run county government," Whitehead said. "I think people have pretty much made up their mind."

And Whitehead points to a strong grassroots base of conservative Republicans in Delaware County. GOP officials now preside over nine of 12 Delaware County township governments, and the party has a large voting margin in the Yorktown area.

Basil Davis Sr., a retired auto worker who has run for office as both a Democrat and Republican, agreed with Whitehead's assessment that Republicans have left county government in good shape with a healthy surplus.

Davis and his wife voted absentee on Monday with Davis picking and choosing among Republicans and Democrats.

The races for Senate District 26 and township trustee heated up again as the hours ticked away before the polls opening at 6 a.m. today.

Errington again claimed that Phipps and the Indiana Republican Party continued to go negative with more mailers saying Errington was supported by radical interest groups that supported amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"They must be really desperate to make these wild allegations," Errington said.

Phipps said Democrats had been just as negative, accusing him of supporting school vouchers and wanting to raise taxes.

"I have never said any of that," the Republican said.

Phipps believed the Senate 26 race would be decided by which candidate more closely reflected the values of most people. Errington saw the majority being voters in the mainstream, while Smith believed her support comes from people who don't think government is listening to them.

Crouch on Monday felt his chances of winning re-election were "better than break-even" because of "my experience and availability as a full-time commissioner to continue what we have going."

Bledsoe said the race "could go either way."

"We'll just wait and see what the voters decide," he said. "I just wish everyone well."

That doesn't mean he's wishing for Crouch to win, however, just "to have a good day."

Crouch said of Bledsoe: "He's a decent individual. We have the same backgrounds. He's like me 30 years ago."

Both candidates are Air Force veterans, married, the father of three children and work or worked in factories.

The trustee's race took a turn over the weekend with Shirey and Walker trying to point out who was more accountable to voters.

Walker ran an ad that showed the Center Township Fire Department spent about $184 per capita for fire protection compared to Mount Pleasant Township, which spent $37, and Hamilton Township which spent $28.

Shirey countered with a chart that showed how former longtime Trustee William Chambers, Walker's father, had amassed a $5 million surplus and overtaxed citizens for public assistance.

"That is misleading," Shirey said about Walker's criticism.

Shirey said the fire department offered more than fire protection, including emergency medical and building inspection services.

Walker said she used simple math to figure how many people and how much money was spent on fire protection in other townships to find that Shirey far exceeding other township spending.

"These are the facts," she said.

Look for ground games today to include getting voters to the polls, plenty of telephone banks and lots of poll workers at key precincts in Muncie and Delaware County.

Republican Congressman Mike Pence will stop at Southside High School at 11 a.m. to greet voters with Phipps. Errington will be nearby at Grissom Elementary School , usually a good indicator of countywide voting trends, especially for Democrats.

“The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do.” --Joseph Stalin

There’s been a lot -- not enough, but a lot -- of hoopla recently about the fealty of the new electronic voting systems with which we’ve been gifted this election season. It is fitting to see these machines as having spread across our land like the robotic monsters of the 1897 H.G. Wells novel, The War Of The Worlds. The science fiction metaphor collapses, however, when one realizes that these invasive machines bring a lot more fiction to the voting process than they do science.

But let’s face it. The gadgets themselves are but an abuse, a visible target, salt in an already open and festering wound, a wound to the heart of American democracy. The real monsters remain hidden from our view. The real monsters are alive and among us, their dreams of conquest perhaps the closest thing to reality we’ll see manifest this day.

So, as the hours of the midterm elections of 2006 wane, we should look back, not far, just enough to see where we’ve been. It will tell us where we’re going and why the only thing that should surprise us when tomorrow dawns is truth.

Think of what follows here as you enter the voting booth. I know I will.

Consider the facts of recent elections as you participate in our representative democracy. Consider the reality as you look at and listen to the useful idiots of the mainstream media describing the “outcomes” and feigning analysis. But most of all, remember this.

The Democratic presidential candidate won in 1992 and again in ‘96. He was impeached.

The next Democratic presidential candidate to run won in 2000 by at least 500,000 votes nationwide, and in Florida by at least 16,000 votes that we know of. All one need do to confirm this is to reverse the definitive computer glitch in Volusia County alone which the board of elections has proved actually subtracted over 16,000 votes from Al Gore, thus fabricating George W. Bush’s 527 vote margin of victory. [1] These simple and verifiable tabulations are but a few among the many that give Al Gore both the popular and electoral vote counts.

Further, an ex post facto statistical analysis of just the Florida “errors” deviated so far from the plausible median of standard deviation, and in a direction that favored the Republican candidate (the governor’s brother), that to consider them the result of random errors alone, is statistically improbable and ethically impossible.

Didn’t matter. A corrupt system gave George W. Bush the presidency. The Democrat’s victory was simply obviated by a partisan U.S. Supreme Court on a blatant and obvious misinterpretation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The next Democratic presidential candidate won yet another mathematical victory in 2004, and this time by a margin the exit polls and regression data now show to be an incredible 5 to 8 million votes nationwide. The aggregated exit polls have never been wrong by even their specified 3 percent in all the years that they’ve been exercised. Yet in 2004 they showed a 6 percent error against 100 million votes. Analysts place the probability of such an error at 16,000,000:1 (one chance in 16 million).[2]

If we halve the statistical margin, hell, if we quarter it, Kerry still wins.

Notwithstanding these claims, is it unreasonable to expect that in 2004 such polls would have yielded the most accurate results ever? This would seem particularly probable after they proved the only accurate barometer in the Florida mess of four years prior.

Apparently that would be an unreasonable assumption. After all, the bubble-headed bleached-blondes of CNN gushed for days about how in 2004 the exit polls were wrong because more Kerry voters answered the pollsters’ questions than did Bush voters. Now, while this just might have been because there were more Kerry voters than Bush voters, that eventuality was quickly dismissed.

Instead, the claim was that the Bush voters were reluctant to answer the pollsters. Not that I blame them, but this bit of rationality seems uncharacteristic of Bush supporters.

Didn’t matter. However ethereal an excuse, it was good enough for the media to discard the statistical analyses entirely.

More to the point, though, how did the blondes know this, and why only after the fact? How did the pollsters know it? Did the Republican voters’ little boy haircuts give them away. Did their bowties choke off the Repubs’ windpipes leaving them speechless and unable to answer the pollsters’ queries? (Can I say “queries” when speaking of Republicans?) Did the Bush voters say things like, “I voted for Bush, but I won’t tell you that.” If so, why did the pollsters not neutralize this bias before calculating the results as would any competent statistician? If they can recognize and quantify respondent bias as the reason for the inaccuracy, why could they not mitigate it before reporting? It’s irrational to not do so. They’re pollsters for heavens sake! Did the pollsters simply forget to weight the raw numbers? Or had the previous four years of power left Bush Republicans overtly shy, modest, and reserved, thus confusing the pollsters with their polite reticence?

We’ll never know. No evidence has been forthcoming to support the hypothesis.

But, of course, none was needed: the Democrat was once again denied the fruits of victory, the recount, and the presidency.

Why, then, in light of these traceable results, do both the mainstream media and the fools who believe them keep saying the Democrats have no plan for winning? Are we to believe most Americans and the flacks who feed them thoughts devoid of critical thinking skills? The Democrats have been winning consecutively and consistently for 12 years running! Do the math. One plus one does not equal eight. Winning and losing are different. Mathematics IS an exact science.

The Democrats, it seems, not only do have a plan for winning the presidency, it’s a plan that has worked for 12 straight years. What they don’t have is a plan for invoking the will of the American people. That takes more than a plan. That takes backbone. And that’s an anatomical commodity I’ve seen far too little of from this generation of Dem politicians. Their cowardice has been especially manifest in the face of Republican bluster. (All this does beg a question, though. What is it about ugly men in suits, most of whom are hardly taller than the children they molest or cluster bomb, that makes them so frightening to spineless Democratic politicians and their consultants? But I digress . . . )

Well, Dems, it is time to become vertebrate! Because today those same voters who’ve supported you, and many of those who traditionally haven’t, will cast ballots that could, if they are counted, regain both houses of Congress for your party. A boatload of the loftiest Republicans should then prepare to face indictments, impeachment proceedings, and both international and domestic war crimes tribunals, the latter being a hideous thing that they, themselves, have resurrected. But the instigation of such justice will take backbone -- loyal opposition backbone.

Somehow, though, the incumbents remain outwardly rather blithe about it all.

Perhaps -- just perhaps -- that’s because they know something about that salt in the wound I mentioned earlier . . . Electronic voting.

This year some 80 percent of all U.S. votes will be tabulated on electronic machines. How lovely for us. Each and every one of those machines has failed even the most fundamental proof-of-performance tests and shown themselves to be inaccurate and easily hackable while leaving behind no evidence of their infidelity, to say nothing of a voter’s true intentions.

In a major change, neither will any of the traditional national exit polls be carried during the day. There’ll be no Associated Press or Edison exit poll reports before 5 pm to assuage what is already the greatest crisis of confidence entering an election in American history. This despite that such data would be priceless if open to timely trend analysis. So any ancillary data gathered in the course of what should perhaps be called Electron Day, that might serve to contradict the “official” results will be labeled as unprecedented, non-contiguous, and highly suspect by the “winners.” Do you think then that all or even most of the Democratic votes will count? If they do not, will the right questions be asked afterwards, or will the Dems just accept the results and endure yet another congressional term characterized by the emasculating abuses of their colleagues across the aisle? Will wrong or no answers be sheepishly tolerated on our behalf -- again?

Conclusion: I was raised by devoutly Republican parents in Teddy Roosevelt’s Republican hometown, surrounded by Republican friends, Republican neighbors, and Republican everything else. As a teen member of the Young Republicans, I drove elders and disabled (regardless of party affiliation) to the polls on Election Day.

It was an arguably normal environment when viewed through the prism of time. Normal. Sane. Rational. I was just a kid, but I liked Ike, and so it seemed did everyone else.

Fast forward to today. The gang of “Republican” extremists now running and ruining our country bear these folks no resemblance whatsoever, but only serve to defile their memory.

In fact this new gang are not only non-Republicans, they’re not even politicians. Hell, they are not even corrupt politicians. No. They are criminals. They are criminals and sociopaths posing as corrupt politicians and dragging the GOP legacy down with them.

As for the other “parties,” well, the Greens are just a naive, vote-sucking distraction and at this point, nothing more than Karl Rove’s favorite wet dream. That’s all they’ll ever be, too, unless they and progressive America both wake up and demand instant runoff elections so a future Green vote will count for something more than a Republican victory and subsequent elimination of 400 environmental protection laws by Bush’s EPA.

Libertarians are equally well-intended, but today represent an ideological train wreck existing at any given moment somewhere between Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff.

So, does that leave the Dems -- or a revolution -- our only hope? Eek!

Seems that way. But, either way, win or lose, if the Dems don’t stand up and fight, take their hits, and give back better than they take, their party, and our democracy is finished.

As for the revolution, hell, it’s been underway ever since 1992 when the Democrats began winning elections but slowly losing the will and the power to govern. If the Dems win again this day, but the so-called “Republicans” succeed in retaining power, the revolution will be over.

The real haters of democracy will have overthrown the America of her founding fathers and done so without firing a shot.

Man, oh man, I can’t wait until Wednesday morning -- I guess.