(This was originally published in Greater Democracy)

Back during the Republican National Convention, I had the opportunity to hear what a few conservatives where saying about voter fraud in the coming election. I wrote up comments about it here.

Back then I wrote about John Fund, member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and in 1982 a chief investigative reporter for syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novack, suggested that if the election is close, we’ll have more what happened in Florida in 2000, the law suits will happen across the country.

I have been hoping for a clear victory this around so that we might avoid that morass. Yet, I am beginning to fear that things could be worse. Yesterday, I was talking with the chair of the democratic city committee where I live. She was suggesting getting cookies to give out to people as they wait in line to vote, because she believes we will have long lines, and we don’t even live in a ‘battleground’ state.

The article in the New York Times today, Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge Voters at Polls in Key State gave me even more reason to stop and think. While the Republicans will swear up and down that all they are trying to do is make sure that there is no voter fraud and no one tries to vote illegally, many Democrats are accusing them of trying to discourage voters from voting.

There have already been considerable issues popping up. In my town and the town next to my town, the registrar of voters sent out cards listing the incorrect polling places. Subsequently, new cards have been sent to correct this, and everyone is claiming it is an honest mistake, but still it raises the level of confusion around the election.

There have been various reports of erroneous sample ballots being provided. In particular, Christine Cegelis who is running against Henry Hyde had her name placed incorrectly on the sample ballot.

The New York Times article has caught the attention of many people. In the blogs, Majikthise and ISOU have blogged about this. Pierre Omidyar has written about this. However, the most disturbing comment I received was an anonymous comment saying, “In any case, this is going to be ugly. Mmmm, blood on the ground. I think I'm going to vote early and watch a lot of TV on 11/2.”

I hope that the anonymous commentator is wrong. I hope that sufficient peaceful observers will make this a fair, honest, and safe election. Groups like Count Every Vote offers some hope.

The underlying dynamic is that it appears as if the Democrats are trying to encourage people to vote and the Republicans are trying to discourage people from voting. I sure hope the Democrats are victorious in this.