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The 2002 Help America Vote Act required or helped states to replace outdated voting equipment, establish statewide voter registration databases, require better voter identification and provide provisional ballots so qualified voters can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
These stories were written weeks ago. All part of the DNC plot.
Folks, this is gonna get real ugly.
Uh Oh, opportunity for fraud. Just add in all those extra votes when you feed into machine. How many ways can I cheat the vote? Let me count the ways.
Martin County Florida. Used electronic touch screen type machine.
Very easy to use. No problems. Also, assistance is there if you need it, so no excuse for someone to say I can't figure this out.
P.S My wife and I voted. Straight R ticket......
Tool misfunction eh. I'd wager that your D vote will be counted, but not your R vote.
That public display of a dim voter sounds like a set-up to me. You know the lawsuits are coming and that will be used. Witnesses who heard a dim couldn't get vote to register. When it stalled for you you should have shouted out that it wouldn't take your Repub vote.
Yep, and plenty of them in Austin & Travis County. My area (Lago Vista) is heavy Republican, and I voted early.
Now then,
This is excerpted from the 'Pew Research Center For the People and the Press' website. The Center is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. They research things like unemployment versus party affiliation.
Scroll until you find this excerpt, about two-thirds down this page:
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=949
It is under the "Survey Reports" tab. Google a phrase or two if you get lost. You will eventually find this page. Here is the part that applies to my argument:
"Profiles of the Typology Groups: DISADVANTAGED DEMOCRATS
10% OF GENERAL POPULATION
10% OF REGISTERED VOTERS
PARTY ID: 84% Democrat; 16% Independent/No Preference, 0% Republican (99% Dem/Lean Dem)
"LIFESTYLE NOTES:Nearly a quarter (23%) report someone in their household is a member of a labor union, and 58% report that they or someone in the home has been unemployed in the past year both far larger proportions than in any other group. Only 27% have a gun in the home."
You don't have to be a PhD in Statistics to see that being unemployed strongly correlates with being a Democrat, at least according to this report.
I was the first one to vote in my precinct this morning and was "delayed" by a voting machine problem. I reported to the poll worker that my machine wasn't working. He told me he couldn't help me vote. I said: "Mind if I plug the machine in myself then?"
Scary as it is, that is a true story. Some of the, shall we say, more experienced poll workers aren't skilled with the electronic machines.
Voting Machines Woes Cause Early Delays [
I had quite a time of it until a nice young man with a beard and bandana and earrings and nose ring came to help.
He let me practice 8 or 9 times so I'd get it right and finally I got it. I hope I voted correctly though cause he changed a few things saying I made a mistake.
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