I’m sitting in the satellite truck outside the Aladdin Shrine polling center in suburban Columbus.  The Aladdin Shrine is one of the largest polling sites with 5000 registered voters.   They expect about 80% to turn out today – an astounding number which could well be replicated across the state.

What’s striking so far is what’s NOT happening.  After the trainwreck/meltdown of 2004 when machines broke down and there were record numbers of provisioal ballots, EVERYONE knew the high turnout here would put the system here in Ohio to the test.  So far, and I say so far, because alot can happen in the last few hours of the race, the lines have not appeared.

The secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, much maligned by some republicans as too partisan, told reporters this morning that the average wait across the state was just an hour.  Just an hour!  When we covered the early voting in Columbus Sunday, the lines were averaging between 3 and 4 hours.   So what is going on here?  According to some of the poll workers we’ve spoken to, the impact of early voting CANNOT be underestimated.

In this state, ground zero n the 2004 race, about 20% of the eligible voters have already cast their ballots.   We were strike by the number of first time voters (roughly 10 percent of eligible voters this time around) also students and others who just wanted to avoid the long lines of the last presidential election.

What to watch for tonight?  One republican state contact told me he will be watching the south east corner of the state.  it is Appalachia. it is where the economic direction of the candidates really matters. it is where hillary clinton steam rolled obama in the democratic primiary  A strong showing for McCain in this part of the state could suggest a strong showing over all in Ohio and not republican has gone to the whitehouse whithout winning here in Ohio.