re: "They decided to spoil my original ballot and create a new one for me to start over"
The perfect recipe for fraud. It is the electronic "hanging chad". In the precincts where the machines didn't work, or where the judges didn't know how to work the machines (eg Chicago Public School educated judges) those allegedly "spoiled" ballots can now be the debate over the "intent" of the voter.
Whoever controls those spoiled ballots wins for County Board Pres. Thus, there is a motive in not having the machines work, and in not properly training judges in how to work the machines, and in having a lousy Public School system.