In "Citizen Kane," a group of editors stands next to a printing press on election night, considering two front pages. One declares, "Kane Elected." The other, which the editors forlornly concede they have to use, charges, "Fraud at Polls!"
So went the story on cable news and across the Web on Tuesday as personalities and bloggers rendered judgment. The one conclusion many seemed to agree on -- even before there was a clear winner -- was that the other side had cheated, lied or intimidated its way to possible victory.
Speaking on MSNBC, the former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean declared that the "only way" President Obama could lose in Ohio "is if people are prevented from casting their ballots, either by voting machines that aren't functioning right or other forms of harassment."
Websites with large liberal followings like Mother Jones, Slate and the Huffington Post highlighted a video that claimed to show a "Romney-loving" voting machine in Pennsylvania that was erroneously converting Obama votes into votes for Mitt Romney.
In the conservative media, there were numerous reports that voters were finding images of Obama at their polling places in apparent violation of laws that prohibit campaign activity near voting booths. The Daily Caller posted a photo from the James O'Keefe group Project Veritas that showed a poster of Obama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks just feet from where people were casting ballots in Newark, N.J.
Fox News broadcast several segments about a mural of the president, complete with his campaign logo and the words "hope" and "change," that greeted voters at a Philadelphia school. Fox News, Breitbart.com and the Drudge Report were particularly aggressive in their coverage of a member of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia. Critics complained that they are an intimidating presence and could discourage white voters," it added, "who may be more likely to vote Republican."
But media outlets that were making predictions about the outcomes in battleground states proceeded with caution, sometimes even correcting misinformation on the air.
NEW YORK TIMES
DYLAN CALLED A WIN FOR OBAMA
Bob Dylan said he thought President Obama was going to win in a landslide. He made the prediction Monday night midway through the song "Blowin' in the Wind" during a concert in the battleground state of Wisconsin. He spoke to the Madison audience as he was wrapping up his concert that came just hours after Obama appeared at a morning rally in the same city with rocker Bruce Springsteen. He went on to say, "I think it's going to be a landslide" for Obama.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAN YOU SPARE A VOTE?
Many Americans vote at schools or churches or community centers. But a bowling alley? That's where some folks in North Dakota cast their votes. In Mandan, the Kingpin Lounge at the Midway Lanes was transformed into a polling place. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp voted there with her son, Nathan. She says she's been voting at the alley for years and doesn't think it's odd at all.
In Iowa, some voters cast their ballots at a log cabin and maintenance shed. And in Berkley in Boone County, the shed-turned-polling-center has a voting table and booths set up where the snow plow is usually parked.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
