Posted on 11/07/2006 6:18:05 AM PST by Timeout
Edited on 11/07/2006 6:29:22 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Voting machines began wreaking havoc the minute the polls opened Tuesday, delaying voters in dozens of Indiana and Ohio precincts and leaving some in Florida with little choice but turn to paper ballots instead.
In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new voting machines that they couldn't get to start properly.
"We got five machines - one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.
Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts. Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly.
"We are working with precincts one-by-one over the telephone to get the problem fixed," Wenger said.
With a third of Americans voting on new equipment and voters navigating new registration databases and changing ID rules, election watchdogs worried about polling problems even before the voting began Tuesday.
Although turnout generally is lower in midterm elections, this year was the deadline for many of the election changes enacted in the wake of the Florida balloting chaos of 2000.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act required or helped states to replace outdated voting equipment, establish statewide voter registration databases, require better voter identification and provide provisional ballots so qualified voters can have a say if something goes wrong.
"There has not been an election in decades that has had this much change," said Wendy Weiser, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school.
Control of Congress is also at stake this year, with all 435 House seat and 33 of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs, along with 36 governors' offices. Because individual congressional races are generally decided by fewer votes than presidential contests, any problems at the polls are more likely to affect the outcome.
According to Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm, 32 percent of registered voters were using equipment added since the 2004 elections.
Nearly half of all voters were using optical-scan systems that ask them to fill in blanks, with ballots then fed into a computer. Thirty-eight percent were casting votes on touchscreen machines that have been criticized as susceptible to hackers.
Election experts say both types of voting machines are bound to cause trouble.
Touchscreens may display incorrect ballots or fail to boot properly. Voters using optical-scan equipment might circle a name instead of filling in a box.
Poll workers also might not be adequately trained to handle the unexpected, which can cause delays as voters were already discovering Tuesday.
Voting-machine vendors said they had thousands of workers on the ground and special command centers to handle any problems.
"Elections have hundreds and hundreds of moving parts, and most of those parts have to do with humans," said Michelle Shafer, spokeswoman for Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. "There will be isolated issues throughout the nation I'm sure. That's just the normal part of elections. Overall we feel confident things will go pretty well."
Just getting to the right polling place with all the right identification posed a challenge for some voters.
Excerpt. Continues Forbes
My big dream is for Steele to pull it out, thus breaking the dam that's been keeping blacks from bolting the donkey party. Then, they come forward and reveal all those "strategy sessions" where they were coached on how to claim they were "disenfranchised".
DISENFRENCHFRIED!
(R) or (D) precinct?
LOL!
I'd PAY to hear that!
My husband and I voted in Spencer Co., Richland, no problems at all, nice line waiting to vote too!
Funny how voting problems occur in Democrat districts run by Democrat apparatchiks...just voted in my Republican district here in Richmond, Virginia. Nothing but pleasant folks working the polls and standing in line to vote before going to work. The head poll worker announced to the voters that we ink in the ballot; not punch...the snicker that went through the line said it all.
Egad! They had to resort to paper ballots. Oh, the humanity. Please, some one call Jimmy Carter and Jessie Jackson ASAP and tell them to get to FL because the poor souls had to use paper ballots. Clearly, if a GOP candidate wins in those districts it MUST mean the voters were confused with how to use a pen and is tantamount with voter intimidation.
Some are claiming problems in PA, too:
Voting Machines are down in PA (Vanity)
November 7, 2006 | Kaslin
Posted on 11/07/2006 5:57:09 AM PST by Kaslin
A friend I chat with in a political room just told me that most of the voting machines are down in Pennsylvania. Did anyone hear about this?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1733942/posts
R precinct i believe.
It seemed that noone was struggling with the Vote-Amatic machines either.
I voted on the electronic machine for the first time. It couldn't have been any easier.
I just heard the voting machines in PA have started walking around and eating people!
I saw that here in MN but it was only this long hair maggot infest dope smoking FN type wearing an Impeach Bush button so apparently they are programed to only eat Rabid Moveon.org Leftists. Freepers should be safe. The Election Judge just game me a wink and a nod and said "nobody saw nothin' "
BTW, Karl says HI, GW says call him. Laura wants to know when you and Heather Locklear are coming by for dinner again.
Microvote in Daviess County Indiana no problems
I remember in 5th grade social studies we had to learn how to fill out a ballot.
We also were told it was our responsibility and if we screwed it up, it was thrown out. For example, don't vote a straight rep. ticket, then mark a dem., or it will be pitched.
We all got it.
I'm sick and tired of putting up with idiots.
You can't fix stupid.
MYGAWD, then stay home. People who can't figure out an outhouse from a voting booth have no business in either. That's right, disenfranchised and disagreeable dems., go to the voting booth that has the little moon carved in it's door. It was made JUST for you, the sh*t-for-brains voter.
I smells me a Rat...
LOL, I see your sense of humor is fine today.
All jokes aside, I really hate these voting machines. I don't like private entities controlling and possibly influencing elections. There's too much danger there - it can be used to undermine our democratic process.
Banks can record millions of transactions daily without error.
There is no reason one day of voting can't be recorded flawlessly.
Two things stop voting from going smoothly: 1 - Not spending enough on people and equipment to do the job. 2 - Some people have a vested interest in making sure that the public loses confidence in the vote.
There is nothing I can think of that is more of a danger to this country than the public losing confidence in the integrity of the vote. It should be sacred, and guarded with our lives. We take it too lightly, and if the liberals succeed in making it meaningless, this country will fall like a house of cards.
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