Posted on 11/07/2006 12:05:11 PM PST by excludethis
(New Jersey - WABC, November 7, 2006) - The US Attorney for New Jersey has dispatched investigators to run down complaints of voting machine problems which are preventing voters from casting ballots for GOP Senate hopeful Tom Kean, Jr.
The counsel for the NJ Republican State Committee, Mark Sheridan, says he has four sworn affidavits and has received more than two dozen calls alleging that some of New Jersey's electronic voting machines were either "pre-voted" for Democratic incumbant Bob Menendez, or were otherwise inoperable when voters sought to cast votes for Kean.
Sheridan says complaints had come in from five NJ counties, some of the polling places affected are in Passaic, Paterson, Scotch Plains and North Bergen, though Sheridan refused to be more specific, citing a fear of depressing voter turnout in the affected locations.
Sheridan called the complaints a "disturbing" trend and threatened court action if election officials were unable to correct the problem and prevent its recurrence.
Sheridan said he'd received complaints of problems at more than seven locations affecting multiple voters at multiple and identical locations.
One problem, says Sheridan, is that voters apparently don't realize that in order to deselect a vote for a candidate on the new machines, they need to touch the icon for that candidate, and then touch the screen again to select the icon of the candidate for which they want to cast a vote.
Even so, Sheridan says that does not explain how the Menendez icon was selected on the affected machines, even before the voters attempted to use the machines to cast their ballots.
Voters do need to affirmatively lock in their votes on the machines before they reset, and there is a possibility that some voters aren't doing that, which could account for the problem, at least in some cases. However, Sheridan points out that if that were the case here, all of the icons for which a voter had cast ballots would be lit and the problem seems to be that only the Menendez icon remains selected.
Sheridan says there is no provision which would allow a poll worker to void an erroneously cast vote.
The counties in which machine problems have been reported include Middlesex, Hudson, Camden, Passaic and Union Counties.
Sheridan says the machines mentioned in the complaints are all Sequoia voting machines.
All four voters who swore out affidavits allege they voted for Menendez when they intended to vote for Kean.
The problems were first reported starting at about 7 a.m.
Can't wait to hear the DUmmie whining that this is an attempt by the Republicans to steal the vote in NJ...by making it impossible to vote for the Republican.
I'm starting to think we won't have an idea of who controls congress until mid-December.
In Morris County NJ neither my husband nor I had any issues, but we are a very red pocket of the state...
We may never know.
I didn't have a problem early this AM.
Doogle
On the one hand this is a bad sign. On the other hand, the fact that the GOP and U.S. Attorney are on this is a good sign.
I wouldn't put something like this past the imagination of some folks.
I sort of think that any voter who would walk away from a voting machine without insisting that the problem be fixed deserves what he gets.
Thank God for the US Attorney. We know the Dem Machine in NJ would do nothing about vote fraud.
Heck, I haven't figured out who controls it from the PREVIOUS election...
There's a first-hand report on another thread confirming the "pre-vote for Menendez" when they voted this morning.
Every election gets us closer and closer to becoming a Banana Republic.
'DON' Corzine?
The Democrats wouldn't cheat, would they?
Everything went A-OK early this morning in Monmouth County as well.
BUMP.
During the primaries in Georgia, a handful of black ladies swore that they voted for Cynthia McKinney but their votes were registering for her rival. They called the authorities in and after a thorough investigation discovered that these women pushed Cynthia's name with their finger pads but the tips of their very long finger nails was hitting and registering the vote for her rival.
Case close. No disenfranchisement or cheating but a case of bad manicures.
Found it here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1734170/posts?page=21#21
However, he said his wife observed it. So, it's not exactly first-hand.
Go back to a paper ballot that requires a black ink mark to be made next to the name of the candidate being voted for.
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