Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio, Miss. and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead.I love how the article says "paper ballots" like they're a bad thing. It's the electronic machines that are bad. Here's more from the article:
In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn’t get to start properly until about 10 minutes after polls opened. “We got five machines — one of them’s got to work,” said Willette Scullank, a troubleshooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.That's the spirit! ONE of them's got to work! Well, not really :) Here's more:
In Mississippi's Hancock County, where voters were heading to the polls for the first time since it was clobbered by Hurricane Katrina, MSNBC found Pamela Metzler, circuit clerk for Hancock County, Miss., fuming. “The equipment is just over the top for the average poll worker,” she fumed. “Hell, it’s over the top for me.”Wow--what's so difficult about pressing buttons on a touch-screen? I suppose that could be very difficult if the software was designed for crap... For from the article:
Metzler said the Diebold touch-screen machines were “shoved down our throats” by Secretary of State Eric Clark as part of a deal that brought 77 of Mississippi’s 82 counties into compliance with the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Tuesday’s general election was the first big test of the system. Metzler said the equipment problems were keeping some county residents from casting their ballots on their first attempt.Nice, so now these Diebold machines are serving as a detriment to democracy. WEEEE! And a bit more:
In Indiana’s Marion County, about 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper because poll workers didn’t know how to run the machines, said Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler. She said it could take most of the day to fix all of the machine-related issues. 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 there. 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,” she said.Sheesh. My polling place has changed for the first time in the eight years I've lived in my apartment. I wonder if they'll switch from the ink-a-vote system (the non-punch-card punch-cards) to electronic machines. I'll have my minicam there just in case I get an electronic machine. Man, talk about Russian roulette! Will it record my vote properly? Will it not? WHO KNOWS!
Orignal From: VOTING IRREGULARITIES: BIG SURPRISE (or not!)
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