A good friend of mine called today asking how to get in touch with the Obama campaign, wanting to warn them about something he'd heard while recently in California.
My friend's work brings him into contact with ultra wealthy, very connected Republicans.
He called to warn that his contacts expect California to be an unpleasant Nov 4 surprise for Obama, due to a whole new level of polling place manipulation.
The context is that of wealthy whites resisting the rise of minorities in California. Thus, he told me, the voting problems are expected to arise in minority-rich areas such as East LA, Riverside, and San Bernadino, where many Democratic voters live and work, and where many people are newly registered.
My friend emailed me thus:
"While it appears as though this election is looking good for Obama in the East, some words of warning from the West Coast. There has been manipulation of voting station availability in the strongly democraticaly-favored communities, so much so that GOP members are laughing at the supposed gains in registrations for Obama, saying "just wait till they try to actually vote"
This has been enabled for quite a long time through the defeat of Gray Davis, which was done with this present scenario in mind. Putting "Arnold" in power gave them the ability to manipulate many of California's "certain win" Democratic locations.
This is just one second-hand anecdote. But I do believe that we're going to see massive voter suppression, stealing of votes, and computer manupulation of the results, in the significant states.