Long lines, demands for IDS, provisional ballots mar voting

In Virginia and Texas some voters waited in line for four hours. In Pennsylvania, there were inappropriate demands for official photo IDs. Recorded calls went out to residents of Florida saying misleadingly that they had until 7 p. m. “tomorrow” to vote. And in Ohio, there seemed to be an unusually high number of provisional ballots, causing concern that they might not all get counted.

Election Day had its share of flaws and partisan disputes but it was unclear Tuesday evening whether any would cause a major shift in the result or set the stage for a big lawsuit. A judge in Galveston, Tex., ordered polls to stay open a bit late because of crowds, and there were court orders in Pennsylvania barring observers from interfering with voters. Still, the day was largely uninterrupted by judicial activity.

Legal action might follow later, once margins of victory in swing states were clearer. As for Election Day itself, the lack of court activity may have been because both Democrats and Republicans had trained and planned for months and were out in force watching poll workers — and each other.

Liberal nonpartisan groups, gathered into an alliance called Election Protection, said they received more than 80,000 calls to their hot line seeking help from confused voters. The alliance, organized by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, had 5,000 lawyer volunteers in the field and 2,000 people on phones in 28 call centers in 80 jurisdictions.

One concern was the apparently large number of provisional ballots given to voters in Ohio, the state many considered the central battleground for the election. Provisional ballots are given when information presented by the voter does not match the registration roll or insuffi cient identifi - cation is presented.

Another concern had to do with voter identifi cation requirements in Pennsylvania. A law passed earlier this year said voters had to present an official form of photo ID at the polls but a judge said that would not go into effect for this election. He said poll workers should ask for the ID but voters without them could vote .

Ron Hicks, a lawyer for the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, said Democratic poll watchers had also been yelling and intimidating some voters.

Latino voters said they faced daunting lines in Virginia, Ohio, Nevada and especially South Florida, but many Latino leaders said the wait was largely a result of robust turnout.

The misleading phone calls to 12,500 voters in Pinellas County, Fla., saying they had till “tomorrow” to vote, was an error, according to a spokeswoman for the county supervisor of elections. She said the calls started going out Monday night and continued Tuesday. Corrections were issued.