The biggest problems with electronic voting machines appear to be in Denver. But Moritz reports additional voting machine problems in Cleveland, New Jersey, and elsewhere. See this Washington Post roundup and this NY Times roundup.
Kos is already heralding today as the end of the electronic voting era. I think that’s premature, and I also think that the solution of vote by mail raises its own set of problems. The solution is not primarily a machinery fix; it is to make our election officials nonpartisan and professional. That will solve the other problems. More on this point in days to come.
The highly publicized snafus with voter ids are getting some attention. With news that Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) were turned away from the poll for lacking proper identification, the debate over the number of people who will be disenfranchised by voter id laws will heat up again (much of it taking place in court in suits over the constitutionality of these laws). The lesson here is that voter id laws are not just disenfranchising to people who don’t own the right id. They also can disenfranchise those who don’t bring the id to the polls. Not everyone will have the time to take off work to go back home (as these officials apparently did) to get the right forms of identification. There’s no doubt these laws place at least some real burden on the right to vote.
As for whether any of these glitches will cause the election to go into overtime, it is still too early to tell.
UPDATE: Moritz is now reporting that a judge has ordered polls to stay open later in some Ohio precincts, and the state has appealed.