GOP poll challengers tried to intimidate Genoa voters, clerk says

[Jim Lane]

5. Can the poutrage. The Republicans did nothing wrong in this instance.

The woman who's doing the complaining "said the Republican challengers did not challenge voters' registration, but transmitted their data electronically to state party officials during the Nov. 6 election."

Democrats did the same thing, and properly so. This is just the updated electronic version of a classic GOTV method. You keep track of who has voted so that you know who hasn't. You check your list of previously identified supporters, strike off those who've voted, and set your phonebankers to calling the ones who haven't voted, to get them to the polls. All that's new is the use of a smart phone to transmit the data.

This year, because of the well-publicized snafus of the Romney campaign's ORCA system, there were probably more Democrats doing this than Republicans. Many of the Republican volunteers didn't have the necessary credentials or the proper information.

We have a secret ballot. It's a secret as to how you voted. There is, however, no secrecy or legitimate expectation of privacy concerning the fact of whether or not you voted.

This whole thing is just not a big deal. It's a distraction from genuine problems, such as people having to wait hours to vote (many of them being "urban" voters, nudge nudge wink wink).