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The 2002 Help America Vote Act required or helped states to replace outdated voting equipment, establish statewide voter registration databases, require better voter identification and provide provisional ballots so qualified voters can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
Friend of mine here in Pittsburgh just e-mailed me -- where she voted, the new machines died. Then they couldn't find the paper ballots. I told her I hope my polling place has the old mechanical monsters -- those things go back to at least 1940 and to my knowledge, they never broke down.
This story is about idiots not technology
Yet you trust them with every single fiscal transaction you ever make in your life.
People got to learn the difference between prudent caution and paranoia.
Here in Knox County, TN (mostly Pubbie) we have brand new electronic machines that replaced our old touch screen electronic machines. We used them in the primary and general elections this year without a hitch either time, just as we regularly used the old touch screen machines. It's really surprising how the only people too dumb to handle punch cards and electronic voting seem to be DemonRats in DemonRat precincts. Could it be that the electronic machines are actually making it harder for them to steal votes they way they always did before???
Pssst.. It isn't the machines that are broken. It's the Democrats running the machines that are broken.
You bastard.
Oh for God's sake.
It's 2006.
Show the old lady your driver's license and voter's reg card, get out a barrel of purple ink and some paper with photos of the candidates on it, with a R for Republican, D for Democrat or I for Independent and O for other like the Green weenies, etc, on them.
Dunk your finger like the Kurds do, and get on with the
sh-t-ng grin part.
Seems to me that if rural Africa or Nowhere-a-stan can vote without all of this BS; it can be done in Ohio, or Idaho or wherever.
My friend wasn't complaining about how hard the machines were to operate -- in fact, she said once someone finally got them going, they were relatively easy to use. The problem where she lived was that the machines weren't operational at 7:00 am when the polls opened and for a time no one could find the paper ballots.
She also said she didn't like the fact that there was no privacy -- the machines were out in the open -- anyone walking by could see how you're voting. I don't know that I would like that either.
I just voted in Harford County, Maryland. No problems whatsoever!!!!!!!!
meanwhile, despite the Marion County Clerk (a Republican) doing a dry run which showed no problems, this morning they were having trouble with 1/3 of the machines which happen to be in Julia Carson's district. Gee, what a surprise.
She is in a close race with the Republican candidate, Eric Dickerson, and Indiana now has a strict voter id requirement. I figure they just shut the machines down so that the Republicans would go on to work.
Delaware county (IN) was down early this morning, but according to people I know, it's fixed now. They issued provisional ballots or something to those who got there first thing in the morning.
I don't like machine voting either. I would trust it if it printed out a receipt that corresponded to a control number that I was able to personally verify after the election that that is how the vote was scored.
I propose having elderly trained monkeys run the polls in these areas. They are one step up on the evolutionary scale from elderly untrained Democrats who are currently manning the polls in these benighted precincts.
No. I don't. I audit my own statements. And I've found errors. Not surprisingly, they're usually not in my favor.
For the third consecutive time, I was THE FIRST person to vote in my precinct :)
The only problems were the tally machines (paper and pen ballots) were beeping like crazy right at the start. The teenagers working the polls didn't understand the equipment at first, but finally got it figured out.
And Indiana has, for the first time, REQUIRED IDENTIFICATION for all voters. Truly a great start, ensuring that my legitemate vote won't be cancelled out by a fraudulent ballot.
I really like our ballots and don't see how they could be tampered with.
Paper ballot (fill in the circle). The poll worker GIVES YOU the right pen. When done, go to the station where you insert your ballot in the machine. If you've voted correctly, it gets accepted and your vote is counted. If you didn't fill in the circles right, it gets rejected and you have a chance to correct it.
At the end of the day, the machine tabulates totals for electronic transmission to election central. And there's an actual pile of paper ballots to reconcile to, if necessary.
Why are all these states/counties fooling around with electronic voting when such a simple system is available? Am I missing something?
I voted in Florida this morning, with no problems.
We use paper ballots with a scanning system, fill in the big ovals, large easy toread ballots.
It's always Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Duval counties, ie.. the democratic party strongholds of the state which have the voting problems.... Go figure.
"Why are all these states/counties fooling around with electronic voting when such a simple system is available? Am I missing something?"
Follow the money. Someone is making a pile of money on the computerized garbage.
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