• Kentucky (Kenton): AP reports having to take 108 eSlate voting machines out of service after a learning that they would not light up for straight-party ticket votes.  The Republican Party has issued warnings to all voters.
• New Jersey (Essex): A few voting machines malfunctioning, leading to voters being asked to come back later or vote on paper ballots.  Apparently they machines are back up and running.
• Virginia: Some scanners are reported not to be working correctly due to the weather-rain leads to wet hands and clothes which leads to wet, unreadable ballots.
• Colorado(Fort Collins): voters report “smooth sailing.”
• Florida: Despite a few minor glitches, things are going well up to now, with only a few minor problems being reported.  A paper jam caused a back up of about 200 voters, but the problem was solved in under an hour, and a few optical scanners were not working at another polling place. Poll workers instructed voters that they could wait until they were fixed, or leave their ballots for later scanning. Palm Beach County officials officials said that some machines were not accepting ballots because voters were not completing the second page with the constitutional amendments-a usability issue.

If the problems continue in such small numbers with such low impact, this will be an easy day!

Inés and Janell

My Voting Experience: Salt Lake County

Written By Janell Fluckiger

I arrived at my polling place shortly after the polls opened at 7 a.m.  After running from my car through the pouring rain (which soon turned to driving snow), I saw lines of voters stretching out of the gymnasium and down the hallway.  Several of the other voters commented on how they went to early voting stations but, after seeing the lines there, decided to try their luck on Election Day.  While waiting in line, I got to meet many other voters and hear several interesting stories.  My favorite was from a woman in her 60s standing behind me.  She said “I think we should have to show our Driver’s License!” And the group discussion became about how they could not believe they were not asked for ID.  I said that poll workers are not supposed to ask for ID, unless you are a newly registered voter.  This shocked them-and they spoke of how insecure it is and how you could easily vote multiple times.  One woman said she had a friend who just wanted to know if he COULD vote twice, so after voting, he went to the polls again and was able to vote again, using his own name both times.  She said he ended up getting involved in some legal troubles (surprise, surprise!), but had proved just how prone our system is to fraud.

After about 25 minutes we moved into the gymnasium, and one problem became apparent.  The poll workers split the line into A-L and M-Z.  However, there was not a single person in the M-Z line, so while those of us with last names starting with A-L had been waiting for about half an hour, the poll workers at the M-Z table sat with nothing to do but cut up sheets of “I Voted” stickers.  Occasionally someone from the back of the line would be able to move to the front, bypassing all of us into line #2: the wait for the machines.

As we were about to approach the registration table to sign the book and receive our voting cards, the line stopped moving.  Soon people start complaining, “They’re out of ballots!”  Of course, we don’t use ballots here in Salt Lake County because we vote electronically, so I tried to reassure them.  However the mumbles continued with people saying “This is ridiculous!  It’s only 7:30!  How can they be out of ballots!”  I finally got a poll worker to tell me the real story-the line of those already registered but waiting to vote was so long that they were short on the ATM-like cards, so we had to wait for a voter to finish voting before the line could move forward.  This was no small task, because our ballot was VERY long, filled with lots of legalistic Constitutional amendments, several propositions, and myriad state/county/judge/school board elections.  People were taking 5 to 10 minutes to vote.

Once I was able to verify my registration and move into the second line, I got into an interesting discussion with a group of 2 men and 1 woman, all in their 70s.  One man said, “This will be a thing of the past soon!”  And we began talking about how it cannot be long until we can vote online.  Of course, his wife reminded him that first she would have to teach him how to use the computer.  I said, “But I think it’s fun to come out to vote!”  To which he looked at me and said “you don’t get out much do you?” and suggested maybe I go to a movie instead.  So maybe I’m the strange one.  It did make me think that not only will we be voting online before long, but that the public will begin demanding it.  I still believe some social capital will be lost but, perhaps more importantly, many more people will be able to vote.  In the meantime, I’ll keep going to the polls and walking away happily with my “I Voted” sticker, which I was able to do just 45 minutes after arriving at my polling station.  Voting itself went very smoothly.  The touch screen voting machines are very user friendly, and the VVPAT allows you to see the paper recording of your vote and verify its accuracy.  You cannot tell me that’s not fun!

More minor problems…

• Florida (Miami): Smooth voting, despite long lines.  Only a few glitches have been reported, including a power outage which did not delay voting thanks to backup generators.  A few polls opened late due to a pastor not waking up to unlock the building, another building having the locks changed, and one poll worker opening an hour late at 8 am so he could fill out some paperwork.
• Indiana (Anderson): A few polls opening late due to “human mistakes” caused by poll workers not following proper procedure to get polls open.
• Michigan (Detroit): One polling place gave out tickets to hold voters place in a two hour line.  One man felt disenfranchised after being denied the right to vote-he was a first-time voter and they did not have his registration.
• Ohio (Zanesville): No problems outside of a few paper jams.
• Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh): A man was denied the right to vote.  He was told his registration wasn’t received before October 6th deadline, but he claims to have registered in person in August.  Today he hopes to go before a judge to ask s/he if he can vote. Lawyers are on standby at and near polling places so that voters can go to court IMMEDIATELY if poll watchers report problems.
• Virginia (Richmond): Non-profit groups are claiming problems, while election administrators feel they are overstated.  Only one machine would not start because it couldn’t pick up the wireless signal. It was soon started manually, however.  Voters at one precinct are offended by lack of privacy-having to stand in line with paper ballots without any cover.  A small number of voting machines having problems have been able to be replaced by spares kept on hand.

Inés and Janell

11:20 E.T. Summary

This is a collection of some of the voting technology (and other) problems we’ve seen up to the moment:

• Florida: “Reports that ballots were missing from polls in Tallahassee.”
• Illinois (Chicago): “The touchscreen machine at the Club Lucky bar and restaurant was on the blink. That meant voters had to use paper ballots. Voting was slowed on the South Side when there weren’t enough pens to mark ballots. A Chicago official also reports that three election judges didn’t show up, so he had to recruit volunteers from among voters standing in line.”
• Indiana (Indianapolis): “The voting machines weren’t working, so voters had to manually feed their ballots into the machine. (…) the machines were fixed by 7:30 a.m.”
• Indiana (Lake): “Two machines were down for about 15 minutes when the polling place opened. Both machines are up and running now.”
• Missouri (Kansas City): 3 hours wait because “precincts had received the wrong voter registration lists.”
• New Jersey (Willingboro, Burlington): “Voters needed to use paper ballots because of mechanical problems with electronic voting machines”. For more on Willingboro check out this link.
• New York (Broome): “New voting machine already has two votes.”
• New York (Stapleton): In one voting machine “the lever for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama jammed. Both problems were fixed and voting resumed as usual around 7 a.m.”
• North Carolina (Raleigh): “One polling place couldn’t open at 6:30 a.m. because its chief judge left the precinct’s ballots in her grandson’s pickup when he dropped her off.”
• North Carolina (Wake): “Some paper optical-scan ballots got wet.”
• Ohio (Kenton): “Voting machine malfunctions at a precinct in Kenton County have caused elections officials to go before a judge.”
• Ohio (Shaker Heights): “The first few voters at one precinct received ballots that were missing the presidential race.”
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): “Problems with voting machines not working in eight of 1,681 election divisions throughout the city (…) where machines have gone down, voters have been allowed to vote on emergency ballots.”
• Virginia: “Polling places not opening on time.”
• Virginia (Chesapeake): “Approximately 1,000 people had to stand in line to vote, and some people reported malfunctioning machines.”
• Virginia (Richmond and Fairfax): “Polling places had to switch to paper ballots because of machine malfunctions.” For more on Richmond, check out this link.

Inés and Janell

There is also good news!

According to The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio,

Things must be going fairly well at voting locations as the complaints about voting glitches and other problems are relatively low. Unlike in 2004, when the Dispatch voter hotline rang nonstop during the morning hours, only a handful of complaints have been lodged.

Inés and Janell

More on voting machines

The Los Angeles Times is reporting about voting machine problems in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio:

There have already been breakdowns in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, according to reports gathered by the Election Protection Coalition, a cooperative effort by more than dozen voting rights groups.

All three cities were high on the list of expected hot spots where problems were feared.

The coalition, which by 9:30 a.m. EST had received nearly 11,000 reports of problems, has also fielded complaints about polling places not opening on time in Virginia, where long lines have been predicted for weeks.

The most reports came from New York state.

Inés and Janell

Mysterious ballots in new voting machine

Press & Sun-Bulletin is reporting that:

Kathleen Evanek, an 11-year poll worker, was setting up a new computerized paper ballot system for disabled voters in Districts 17 and 20 when she noticed it wasn’t calibrated.

“When I opened it up, it already had two votes on it and it was supposed to be zero,” she said. “I don’t know enough about this machine to even attempt to recalibrate.”

Evanek said she couldn’t tell who the votes were for.

A custodian with Broome County Election Office was called to recalibrate the machine. There weren’t any disabled voters at the polling place at the time.

Sorry but, did we read 11-year old poll worker?

Inés and Janell

Voting machines in Richmond, Virginia

At the same time that the CNN is reporting that Henrico County in Richmond, Virginia, is switching to paper ballots due to broken machines, the The Free Lance-Star is reporting that:

The NAACP had sued the state last week, saying that election officials had not allocated enough voting machines to largely minority precincts in Richmond, Virginia Beach and Norfolk, and that voters are likely to face such long lines that many will go home instead of waiting, essentially being disenfranchised.

Inés and Janell

Henrico County switching to paper ballots, and more

CNN is reporting that:

Voting machines were breaking down or simply not deployed in adequate numbers in some polling places Tuesday morning, slowing balloting as Election Day dawned.

Long lines were seen in rainy Richmond, Virginia, where Henrico County switched to paper ballots at the Math and Science Center after five of seven machines broke down.

Also, the story adds that:

In New York, some polling places did not open as scheduled at 6 a.m. because they didn’t have enough machines and poll workers were not ready, people on the scene reported.

In Willingboro, New Jersey, broken voting machines were reported at the Penny Packer school, said Joe Dugan, chairman of the Burlington County Election Board.

Inés and Janell

Will the weather affect turnout?

Some days ago we were speaking about unexpected events happening on Election Day.

It rarely rains in Pasadena, but today a light cool rain fell during the night. According to AP, “the National Weather Service was forecasting rain throughout the Los Angeles area and in some parts of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, potentially throwing a wrench in voters’ plans.”

The Pasadena Star News reported that heavy turnout is expected for today. Remember that asides from the Presidential race, there’s a lot more on California’s ballot:

In addition to their division over same-sex marriage, voters appeared split on another attempt to require parental notification for minors seeking abortions, two initiatives to boost the state’s use of alternative energy and three to address crime and punishment.

But will people turnout under the rain?

There are early voters who already got out to vote under the rain. In Idaho, AP reports that brave voters “waited in long lines at early polling stations Monday, sometimes in the rain and often for more than an hour, out of fear that lines would be much longer come Tuesday.”

Reuters reports that “Weather looks good for most of U.S. on Election Day .”

However, according to The Hill, “election weather presents challenges in swing states:”

Weather forecasts in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina – all of them potential swing states in this year’s race – are predicting rain on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service and The Weather Channel. Slightly lower chances of rain are predicted for the Western swing states of Nevada, Colorado and Montana.

Clear skies are forecast for the rest of the 2008 battlegrounds, with sunshine expected in Florida and clear skies in the Midwest.

Will this benefit any of the candidates?

Researchers Brad Gomez, Thomas Hansford and George Krauses studied turnout information and more than 22,000 weather reports and found that every inch of rain beyond average Election Day levels benefited the GOP presidential candidate by an extra 2.5 percent of the vote.

For an updated Election Day weather forecast, check out this link.

Inés and Janell