Democrats aim to halt early voting in Dallas County

The Dallas Morning News ^ | 10/22/2002 | ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

[Abcdefg]

Last modified: 05:51 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Democrats aim to halt early voting in Dallas County 10/22/2002

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

Democratic Party leaders were arguing in state district court Tuesday afternoon that early voting in Dallas County should be halted immediately because of voting irregularities at several of the county's early voting locations.

Some voters complained Monday and Tuesday that votes they cast for Democratic candidates registered for Republicans on the screens of the electronic, touch-screen voting machines used in early voting.

Kate Kettles said she pressed the names of Democratic candidates Tuesday, but the computer highlighted Republicans down the entire ballot. She said an elections judge moved her to another machine, but it took several tries to get the correct names highlighted.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

Democratic Party leaders agreed and sought an end to early voting until the problems could be fixed. Dallas County elections administrator Bruce Sherbet said his office only knows of six to eight voters of the 8,200 who voted Monday who had such problems.

"Usually the first day's more difficult than other days," Mr. Sherbet said. "That's something we have had happen every election since we got the system."

Mike Atwood, executive director of the Dallas County Democratic Party, said his office has received almost 20 phone calls from voters in 10 voting sites who said they had the problem.

The Dallas County Republican Party has not received any calls, chairman Nate Crain said.

The touch-screen system has been used in Dallas County for the past four years. The problem has come about because some machines' electronic grids don't line up correctly so the voter and the computer don't see the same thing, Mr. Sherbet said.

Last year, the outcomes of 18 suburban Dallas County elections remained unclear days after the election because of vote-counting problems.

About 5,000 of nearly 18,000 ballots cast during the early voting period were not properly counted and assigned to candidates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

E-mail ehousewright@dallasnews.com

[Abcdefg]

Flori-duh and Dallas-dumber?

[Otta B Sleepin]

Laying the groundwork for post-Election Day protests if things don't go their way?

[B.O. Plenty]

Well, it has started. The D's said they were going to steal the election by sending out thousands of lawyers to "monitor" the elections......and shazam!....there they are....right on the job. Democrats cannot win an honest election, so they do the only thing they know how to do....

[henderson field]

I always wondered about electronic voting. Is there any way that votes intended for one candidate could be switched to another electronically? Or new votes added ("my, we've certainly got a good turnout THIS year")? We've all seen The Revenge of the Chads, down in Florida. What's wrong with plain old paper ballots and pencil marks (assuming that the people voting are qualified to do so, not Chicago-style "vote early & vote often" or illegals with drivers' licenses)?

[Winston Smith]

I really don't like the touch screen type of vote tally. I know that any program can be bugged. I prefer the type we have which is take special pen and complete the arrow to the candidate or question choice. Then put ballot in box that checks for correctness and vote count. This allows for a clean ballot if a recount is required.

[Tax-chick]

I agree, we fill in with a pen here, and drop the ballot in a counter. When I used to take financial planning exams on a touch screen, it sometimes didn't record what I intended. It doesn't work right if you have long fingernails. I'm serious!

[Izzy Dunne]

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm ,having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," she said.

[TheGrimReaper]

One good feature of the touch-screen voting system....
DEAD DEMOCRAT VOTERS DON'T GENERATE SUFFICIENT BODY HEAT TO ACTIVATE THEIR "CHOICE"!

[Illbay]

Funny that Republicans seem to have no trouble voting.

DIM-ocrats, I guess.

[Naspino]

I tell you one thing -- the election won't be on November 5th, not the results anyway. We may not know who won the senate and house for weeks.

[LaGrone]

Exactly my thoughts. With the close elections this year, I was thinking how many law suits will be filed Nov. 6. Heaven help us.

[Illbay]

Before November 2000, I would have dismissed your comments as frivolous.

[barkeep]

Amen! I've been a precinct election judge for over 10 years and I love optical scan paper ballots. Just got out of a poll watcher training session for local Republicans. If we can keep what goes in the box legit, any post-mortem questions are easily recounted, here's the paper, there's the mark. every time I hear about computer touch screen, I think of the many articles I've read about hackers getting into classified gov't files. How does one read electrons a week later?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Who made the choice to go with electronic voting?

[ClancyJ]

I just got out of my first poll watcher meeting - Tarrant County. Think I am in over my head. Still have no idea what, how to do this, plus I do not know the laws adequately yet. Feel I may need to just be a volunteer and become a poll watcher on a future election. Would at least like some experience before I have to challenge a democrat election judge.

[barkeep]

Nofear ClancyJ, no fear! My first time out of the gate in '92, my fellow republicans discovered I was literate and a month later I was chair of a delegation to the state convention. Didn't know squat, but one learns by doing.

If all that was a bit much to soak up in one sitting, here's help. Go to www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/eltoc.html and you have the Texas Election Code on screen. Select Chapter 33 and it tells you precisely what you can and cannot do as a poll watcher. Print out the whole chapter (really not that long) and take it with you on election day. Democrats hate nothing worse than a well prepared Republican.

Also, direct your local party chair to Chapter 34. Less than a page long, if you get 15 valid signatures from your county/senatorial district, the sec of state SHALL appoint a state inspector to oversee your election.

[MeekOneGOP]

Well I voted in Dallas County yesterday and didn't have any trouble. Straight GOP and it said "You're voting straight party Republican. If this is correct, push the red VOTE button".......

County Democrats say early votes miscounted

Court hearing delayed as meeting planned on touch-screen problem; GOP criticizes filing

10/23/2002

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT and VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas County Democrats asked a state district court judge to shut down early voting Tuesday because some touch-screen ballot machines hadn't accurately recorded votes.

But Democratic leaders opted later to delay a court hearing, agreeing to meet Wednesday with county elections officials and representatives of the Nebraska-based ballot machine manufacturer for an explanation.

The Democrats said they received several dozen complaints Monday and Tuesday from people who said that they selected a Democratic candidate but that their vote appeared beside the name of a Republican on the screen. They also said some votes cast for Republicans were counted for Democrats.

Problems were reported in seven or eight of the 24 early voting locations, and 18 machines were taken out of service, said Bruce Sherbet, county elections administrator. Affected races included the hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Republican John Cornyn and Democrat Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor.

Democratic officials said they didn't know how many votes might have been inaccurately recorded. No problems were reported in other counties.

"We don't know if we lost 10 votes, 100 votes, 1,000 or 10,000," said Susan Hays, chairwoman of the Dallas County Democratic Party.

Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Nate Crain called the Democrats' court filing "a blatant attempt to stop people from exercising their right to vote early."

Early voting began Monday, and more than 16,000 Dallas County voters had cast ballots, county officials said. Early voting ends Nov. 1, and Election Day is Nov. 5.

More than 400 electronic ballot machines - introduced to Dallas County in 1998 - are used at polling places. If a voter reported a problem on a machine, he or she was directed to another machine at the same location, and the vote was properly recorded, Mr. Sherbet said.

He said he would be surprised if any votes were lost or assigned to an unintended candidate. It should have been obvious to voters if their vote did not register by the candidate they intended, and voters could have sought assistance from a poll worker, Mr. Sherbet said.

Jostling causes problem

Similar, isolated problems have occurred in previous elections, he said. They normally occur when the machines are jostled in transport and get "misaligned," Mr. Sherbet said.

Readjusting and properly aligning the machine's mechanisms, he said, is a quick, simple process for a county elections employee who has been trained by the manufacturer.

The touch-screen machines - made by Election Systems & Software - have been used in more than 90 Dallas County elections in the past four years and have an outstanding record overall, Mr. Sherbet said.

"Any touch-screen system - from a voting machine to a Palm Pilot to an ATM - can have calibration issues," he said. "We want to address every concern."

For early voting only

The touch-screen system has been used in Dallas County only for early voting. On election days in Dallas County, voters use pens to fill in circles next to candidates' names on paper ballots. The ballots are read by scanning equipment.

County officials have said they would prefer to use touch screens on Election Day, too, but the cost of buying enough machines is prohibitive.

Ms. Hays said it appears that the problem was with the voting equipment, not county elections personnel.

"This is a vendor's problem," she said. "They need to prove to us that voters' votes are being cast as they want."

Last year, the outcomes of 18 suburban Dallas County elections remained unclear days after the election because of vote-counting problems. About 5,000 of nearly 18,000 ballots cast during the early voting period were not properly assigned to candidates.

Computer problems were caused when a candidate was added after early voting had started. The county faulted ESS officials for not recognizing that the addition could cause problems.

Mike Limas, chief operating officer of ESS, defended the voting system Tuesday.

"We're continuing to work with the county to see if we can validate what's being discussed and resolve it," Mr. Limas said. "This really doesn't happen very often, although obviously it's very serious to someone who feels that their vote is not being accurately counted."

ESS says it is the world's largest manufacturer of voting equipment. The company says it has handled more than 40,000 elections representing more than 100 million ballots. It contracts with 1,700 jurisdictions in 49 states, Canada and other countries.Some county Republican leaders said Tuesday that Democrats were exaggerating the extent of the voting problems for political gain.

Dallas County Commissioner Jim Jackson said it would be "a travesty" to shut down early voting based on the temporary restraining order request filed late Tuesday by Democratic leaders to try to halt the election.

"This is a partisan effort to disrupt the election because they are losing," said Mr. Jackson, a longtime Republican.The petition for a temporary restraining order said that "widespread" problems occurred in at least 11 early voting locations. A hearing before state District Judge Mary Murphy began Tuesday before the delay.

Some voters who wanted to vote a straight Democratic Party ticket instead had votes assigned to all Republican candidates, the court filing says.

'Gross violation'

The problem is a "gross violation of constitutional and statutory rights," it says.

Voter Kate Kettles told The Associated Press that she tried to vote for all Democratic candidates but that the computer highlighted Republicans all the way down the ballot. She said that an election official moved her to another machine but that it took several tries to get the correct candidates selected.

"It's the fact that I'm having to make a serious effort that is really disconcerting," Ms. Kettles said.

Mr. Kirk said he was concerned about the voting problems.

"The good news is that I know Bruce Sherbet," he said. "I know he's someone with integrity. We are pleading with voters to scroll through the ballot and make sure what the ballot reflects is the way you have voted."

Staff writers Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Todd J. Gillman contributed to this report.

E-mail ehousewright@dallasnews.com and vloe@dallasnews.com

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/102302dnmetvotingproblems.380b6.html

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[sinkspur]

Wanna bet all this hullabaloo took place in Oak Cliff, so the Dems can give it a racial tinge if they need to?

[TxBec]

hmm.. they click on a democrat candidate and it automatically changes to a republican candidate... divine intervention????

[Mind-numbed Robot]

This looks a lot like past Democrat ploys of accusing the other guy of the crimes they are committing. Accuse first and put the opponent on the defensive and do the dirt while everyone is investigating the innocent. The political version of the magician's sleight of hand.