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Florida Early Voting off to Rough Start: Machines Not Reading Votes

October 20, 2008

By Dave Wax
First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Reports have been coming in from all over the city that indicate problems in some of the early voting locations.

The problems stem from ballot-reading machines not working.

October 22, 2008

The Spectrum

ST. GEORGE – Residents who hoped to get a head start on early voting in St. George were set back a bit this morning when the electronic voting machines failed to work because of a glitch with voting cards.

October 25, 2008

CBS4

Elections officials in South Florida has said early voting turnout appeared to be slowing down, but in Miami-Dade county, figures released by the Department of Elections said turnout has increased every day for the first 4 days of early voting, with just over 60 thousand voting through Thursday.

County figures show 12 thousand people votes Monday, the first day of early voting. The totals increased each day this week, with almost 18 thousand voting Thursday.

November 11, 2008

EDITORIAL
The Herald Bulletin
November 4, 2008

This one comes under the heading “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.”

Madison County of ficials thought they had all their bases covered going into the election. They extended early-voting hours to help deal with the avalanche of voters expected, and they’d done the standard testing of the tabulating machines.

October 22, 2008

By Sallie James and Scott Wyman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Lines up to 3½ hours long continued to plague early voting across Broward County on Tuesday, leading elections officials to scramble to find ways to cut the wait and ease frustration.

October 21, 2008

By Lance Hernandez
7NEWS

DENVER -- Early voting is underway in Colorado and election officials are encouraging voters to do just that.

In Denver, the polling center at election headquarters opened at 8 a.m. The remaining early voting polling centers opened at 11 a.m.

"Perfect! Early voting, A-plus, plus," said Joseph Newman, who spent all of 10 minutes signing up, filling out his ballot and sliding it into the box.

October 25, 2008

By Mary Lou Pickel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Voter turnout has topped 15 percent in Georgia, as wait times to vote early at elections offices continue to increase.

In Cobb County, the wait time reached a peak of three hours on Wednesday, due to high turnout. Glitches with the state's computer system caused brief delays in processing voters in some counties Wednesday, including Fulton County and Cobb.

October 28, 2008

By Mary Richards
KSL TV 5

Some Park City residents were told they had already voted when they went to the polls for early voting.

Summit County Chief Deputy Clerk Ryan Cowley says it was a problem with the voter database, not the electronic voting machines themselves. He says the handful of people affected voted by provisional ballot instead.

October 22, 2008

By: Dave Wax
First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The Supervisor of Elections says the city saw record turnout on the first day of early voting with 11,970 votes cast. That one day record is more than the 10,000 votes cast during the entire early voting period during the primary election a few weeks back.

But day one did have its share of problems. Elected officials held a news conference Tuesday morning to discuss what happened, and what is being done to correct it.

October 22, 2008

By Julie Montanaro
Associated Press

It turns out a scanner snafu at a Tallahassee polling place wasn't the only one.

Three brand new optical scanners in Leon County malfunctioned and the election supervisor in Duval County also reported trouble with new voting machines there.

November 05, 2008

County officials are concerned, disappointed, frustrated with problem

By Paul Fallon
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT — The car bearing the personal electronic ballots for the last precinct arrived at the Marion County Election Center at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

However, the tension continued to mount at the election headquarters when 4,600 early votes could not be counted because of a glitch in the PEB reading software.

November 03, 2008

Huffington Post

Oprah Winfrey announced on her live show Friday that she took advantage of Illinois' early-voting laws and voted Thursday in Chicago - but not without a voting booth scare and near emotional meltdown.

"I was worried that there's gonna be such long lines, and I have a live show," Winfrey said, justifying her decision to vote early.

She waited 72 minutes to vote, only to have a near-meltdown in the booth.

October 27, 2008

Associated Press

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- A judge weighing whether to close down early voting sites in Lake County's Democratic strongholds questioned local officials about the absentee voting process during visits to the disputed sites.

Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider toured the Gary, Hammond and East Chicago satellite voting sites Monday and heard hours of testimony and arguments on whether they are legal and fair.

October 24, 2008

Associated Press

Elections officials were untangling early voting glitches in at least two states Friday after a Tennessee county reported some voters had gotten ballots for the wrong district and an Atlanta-area county discovered problems with some of its absentee ballots.

In Georgia, Gwinnett County Elections Superintendent Lynn Ledford told the Gwinnett Daily Post that ovals where voters mark their choices are too thick for optical scanning machines to read. She said officials discovered the problem after a routine test last week.

September 28, 2008

By Amy Merrick
Wall Street Journal

The fight for Ohio's 20 electoral votes begins Tuesday.

With a recent state law vastly expanding the absentee-voting process for this presidential election, county boards of elections are gearing up for thousands of early ballots. They are adding staff, relocating polling places to larger venues and running commercials to encourage early voting. Lawsuits already are flying over a one-week window starting Tuesday during which voters can register and cast their ballots on the same day.

October 22, 2008

11,970 In Duval Voted Monday

News 4 Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The second day of early voting in Duval County began much like the first one: lines at the polling places and problems getting the ballots recorded.

Fortunately, the lines were slightly shorter and the problems were limited to two of Duval County's 15 early voting sites: the Highlands Library on Dunn Avenue and the Pablo Creek Library on Beach Boulevard.

But as the day progressed, the lines moved quicker and election officials think they figured out why the vote scanners were rejecting ballots.

October 25, 2008

Associated Press

ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) — Elections officials were untangling early voting glitches in at least two states Friday after a Tennessee county reported some voters had gotten ballots for the wrong district and an Atlanta-area county discovered problems with some of its absentee ballots.

In Georgia, Gwinnett County Elections Superintendent Lynn Ledford told the Gwinnett Daily Post that ovals where voters mark their choices are too thick for optical scanning machines to read. She said officials discovered the problem after a routine test last week.

September 22, 2008

By Richard Wolf
USA TODAY

FAIRFAX, Va. — About one-third of U.S. voters — a record number — could cast ballots for president before Election Day on Nov. 4, voting that starts in earnest Monday.

Statewide, residents of Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia can begin casting their ballots for Barack Obama, John McCain or other presidential candidates.

October 22, 2008

By John Byrne Post
Tribune staff writer

HAMMOND -- Lake County's early voting controversy went on the road Monday.

Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias Schneider visited in-person absentee voting locations in Hammond, Gary and East Chicago as part of the latest hearing on whether to let balloting at the sites continue.

October 26, 2008

By Wes Clement
The Pine Bluff Commercial

The Jefferson County Election Commission held an emergency meeting Friday morning to correct an error that caused some voters in Redfield and Altheimer to cast early ballots that contained errors.

» Read More

An early death for early voting?

November 04, 2008

By Bob Greene
CNN

CHICAGO, Illinois -- Here's an Election Day prediction:

Some year not far in the future, maybe not four years from now, or eight years from now, or twelve years from now, but soon enough -- don't be startled if the current political trend toward early voting is reversed, and states decide to make it more difficult, once again, to vote on any day other than Election Tuesday.

At least that is the clear signal we are getting from the people we have talked with as we have driven through the United States on our journey leading up to today and the clear signal we are getting from people at Grant Park, where tonight's rally for Barack Obama will be held.

October 29, 2008

By Jon Bowman
FOX Denver

Ethics Watch, a Denver based nonprofit that monitors elections, questions whether the state's big counties, especally El Paso County, will have enough ballots on Election Day.

The group indicates that El Paso, home of Colorado Springs, has had problems in the past with a shortage of ballots because of how they estimate election day needs.

October 20, 2008

WV Metro News

"There's no conspiracy here, absolutely none," according to Secretary of State Betty Ireland when it comes to reported early voting problems in Jackson and Putnam counties.
A few voters say the touch screen machines didn't correctly record their votes. They say they voted Democrat, but the machines said Republican. County clerks in both counties say hundreds of other voters have cast ballots with no problems and the situation could be due to voter error.

October 18, 2008

By Jim Turner
TC Palm

With early voting for the Nov. 4 general election starting Monday, election officials on the Treasure Coast are looking for some voters being kept from casting a ballot until their registration information matches state records.

The state "no match, no vote" rule has more than 200 Treasure Coast residents who recently registered to vote among the 7,400 — as of Oct. 3 — who are not listed as qualified because there are discrepancies between what they filled out and state records.

» Read More

An Election Reformer's Wish List

November 23, 2008

By David Herbert
National Journal
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

Universal Voter Registration

No. 1 on the Christmas list of most voting rights advocates is some form of universal voter registration. Their goal: Make all eligible citizens automatically able to vote -- and keep them permanently registered, even if they change jurisdictions. There is some debate over whether to keep voter registration at the state level or maintain voter rolls at a federal level.

October 22, 2008

Election Day's integrity fading

By Robert Hardaway
Rocky Mountain News

Many states permit early voting in presidential elections. While early voting as good public policy may be a matter of fair debate, the practice is in direct violation of federal law.

Under the Constitution, states are of course free to adopt whatever procedures they deem appropriate for the election of state, county and local officials as long as those procedures do not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution or the guarantee of Republican state government as set forth in Article IV, Section 4.

November 18, 2008

U.S. Senate and other races yet to be decided

By Pat Forgey
Juneau Empire
November 9,2008

The state Elections Division said Friday 81,000 votes remain to be counted, mostly early votes but also absentee and questioned ballots.

That may be enough to swing as many as six state legislative races, and the number of votes is making the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Ted Stevens and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich look increasingly close.

Stevens now leads by 3,257 votes out of 221,713.

October 22, 2008

By James Miller
Flagler News-Journal

Flagler County elections officials switched voting machines for early voting Tuesday to eliminate a problem that had kept them from scanning 96 ballots during early voting hours Monday.

The 96 ballots were successfully scanned after the close of voting Monday, Supervisor of Elections Peggy Rae Border said.

November 02, 2008

Election officials say lawsuit over absentee voting is overreaction; Republicans say they just want to see the law followed

By Jon Murray
Indianapolis Star

Marion County election officials said Thursday that a Republican Party lawsuit seeking more scrutiny of absentee ballots was overblown and based on a misunderstanding of early-voting procedures.

Marion Circuit Judge Theodore Sosin will hear both sides today in the dispute, which is based on potential challenges of ballots cast early, either by mail or in person. County GOP Chairman Tom John said the party took action over concerns that improper absentee ballots would be counted as valid by poll workers Tuesday even if they lack the voter's signature or have other defects.

October 22, 2008

By Erica Butler
The Famuan

Gaffes at the voting polls came early this election season. Some machines rejected the state-approved 14 inch ballots on Monday. The ones used in the August primary were 11 inches.

Supervisor of elections, Ion Sancho, said the state of Florida had problems with the OSX Optical Scanner on the first day of early voting. In Leon county, the machine rejected ballots from Woodville Community Center and the northeast public library. Newer machines were used for the election and would not accept the entries. The problem not only occurred in the county, but throughout the state.

October 20, 2008

Voting Brisk In Metro Counties With No Problems

News4Jax.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- People lined up to be among the first to vote at several early voting sites around Jacksonville Monday morning had an extra long wait and some left frustrated when machines at several locations refused to record the ballots.

"It was very shocking to have the very first ballot at 10 o'clock this morning not go into the machine," said state Rep. Audrey Gibson, who hoped to be first to vote at the Gateway location.

The Duval County elections office confirmed problems with voting machines at the Gateway Shopping Center and libraries on Edgewood Avenue, at Regency Square and Webb Wesconnett. Channel 4 heard from voters experiencing problems at other polling places, as well.

November 03, 2008

By Kate Klonick
TPM Muckracker

Add Georgia to the list of states where Republican officials are actively engaged in voter suppression efforts.

In the midst of a record turnout for early voting in Georgia, that has led to long lines, discouraged voters and exhausted poll workers, Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican, has claimed federal law ties her hands, preventing her from extending early voting hours.

October 25, 2008

Associated Press

Election officials across the South are untangling minor glitches as voters flock to the polls and vote by mail ahead of Election Day. On Friday, a Tennessee county reported some voters received ballots for the wrong district and an Atlanta suburb discovered problems with some of its absentee ballots.

Virginia officials have warned that more than 200 absentee ballots from military members could go uncounted because of a technicality, and Florida Democrats are urging the state to extend early voting to deal with the crush of voters descending on polling sites there.

October 29, 2008

Gov. Crist extends early voting hours statewide

By Kirstin Maguire, Amy Sherman, Marc Caputo and Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald

Declaring a state of emergency in Florida because of long voting lines, Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday extended early voting hours across the state to 12 hours a day.

The executive order comes after record early voting turnout has contributed to long lines at polling sites.

Current Florida law allows for early voting to be conducted eight hours a day each weekday and for a total of eight hours during the weekends. With Crist's order, early voting sites will be open the rest of this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be open a total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the last day of early voting.

October 14, 2008

Mistake made by vendor, commissioner says
A programming glitch is forcing election officials in Kanawha and 18 other counties to retest their optical scanning voting machines on the eve of the general election.

By Rusty Marks
The Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A programming glitch is forcing election officials in Kanawha and 18 other counties to retest their optical scanning voting machines on the eve of the general election.

November 04, 2008

Election workers inspect ballots to guard against inaccurate results

By Ryan Morgan
Boulder Daily Camera

Boulder County's election officials are predicting smooth sailing Tuesday, despite a flaw they've discovered on some ballots that could result in inaccurate results if they’re not properly inspected.

Hillary Hall, Boulder County’s clerk and recorder, said workers have discovered that "paper dust" in the creases of some folded mail ballots is keeping computer scanners from reading them properly.

October 15, 2008

Corrected memory cards just in time for early voting
A programming glitch is forcing election officials in Kanawha and 18 other counties to retest their optical scanning voting machines on the eve of the general election.

By Rusty Marks
Charleston Gazette

A programming glitch is forcing election officials in Kanawha and 18 other counties to retest their optical scanning voting machines on the eve of the general election.

Early voting begins today for the 2008 election. But Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick said a programming error in the state's automated voting machines could have resulted in incorrect results for at least one state race.

November 18, 2008

Election gives early-balloting initiatives a boost

By Richard Wolf
USA Today
November 6, 2008

For voters who encountered problems at the polls Tuesday, ranging from hours-long lines to missing registrations to deceptive fliers and phone calls, help could be on the way.

State and federal officials are poised to consider a number of changes designed to make it easier for millions of Americans to get registered, stay registered and vote without problems.

October 22, 2008

By Tamara Lush
Associate Press

MIAMI (AP) — Unprecedented numbers of early voters in Florida and other southern states are prompting election officials to add equipment, extend schedules and hand out water and chairs to make people comfortable as they wait for hours to cast their ballots.

About 150,000 people cast ballots Monday and Tuesday, the first two days of early voting in Florida. The crowds are so large that local elections supervisors are increasing the number of key voting components, updating Web sites with wait times and handing out fans and water to people standing in line.

November 03, 2008

4.2 million Floridians already have voted
By Mark Hollis and Joel Marino
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

A record-shattering 4.2 million Floridians already have voted by casting absentee ballots or going to polls early, including thousands who stood in lines for hours across South Florida on Sunday.

Fourteen days of early voting finished with spectacular displays of patience by voters and poll workers alike.

November 04, 2008

Wheeling News Register

Voters in Ohio County who headed to the polls early today were greeted by long lines of fellow voters and delays with several voting machines.

At mid-morning Ohio County elections officials said the major complaint came from voters who said more machines should have been available.

Toni Chieffalo, elections coordinator for Ohio County said she was unaware of machine breaking down, but noted that election workers have to recalibrate the voting machine after every 10 or more voters.

» Read More

Voters Have Trouble At the Polls

November 11, 2008

Wheeling News-Register
Originally published November 4, 2008

Voters in Ohio County who headed to the polls early today were greeted by long lines of fellow voters and delays with several voting machines.

At mid-morning Ohio County elections officials said the major complaint came from voters who said more machines should have been available.

» Read More

SC Election problems; early voting

November 18, 2008

Charleston Post and Courier
November 9, 2008

The difficulties in voting and in tabulating the votes in Charleston County demand the follow-up attention promised by Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell in the wake of Tuesday's election. More state support may be required.

Some of the polling problems can be attributed to the record turnout, but the difficulties weren't universal. A letter on this page from an Election Day worker on James Island offers evidence that some operations proceeded smoothly, even if the polls were crowded.

November 04, 2008

By Mike Mount
CCNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Rain in parts of North Carolina caused some early problems for voters using optical scanner ballots Tuesday, but a memo about using paper towels seemed to dry up the problem, according to North Carolina officials.

Voters were coming into voting locations early Tuesday morning and getting the paper ballots wet as they handled them, according to Gary Bartlett, Executive Director of the North Carolina Election Board.

December 01, 2008

By Bobby Harrison
Mississippi Daily Journal
November 30, 2008

Early voting numbers
- No-excuse pre-Election Day in-person voting, either early voting on a voting machine or in-person absentee voting, is allowed in 32 states.

- An excuse for in-person absentee voting is required in 14 states, including Mississippi, and the District of Columbia.

- No-excuse absentee voting by mail is allowed in 28 states.

October 22, 2008

By Angeline J. Taylor and Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat

Finicky machines that wouldn't accept legal-size ballots led representatives at two Leon County polling stations to resort to backup plans to properly record votes, Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho said Monday.

October 19, 2008

Heavy turnout, some confusion at Santa Fe polling site for early balloting
The New Mexican and wire services

Turnout was heavy at polling sites in Santa Fe and Albuquerque as early voting started Saturday.

In fact, waiting times were so long at a south-side Santa Fe location that some people who wanted to cast their ballots ahead of the Nov. 4 election gave up and left.

October 21, 2008

Leon County overcomes voting snag
By Angeline J. Taylor and Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat

Finicky machines that wouldn't accept legal-size ballots led representatives at two Leon County polling stations to resort to backup plans to properly record votes, Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho said Monday.

Sancho said around noon Monday a problem became evident with the newly purchased OSX ballot counters. The machines have what Sancho called a "sensitivity problem."

November 03, 2008

Today's voting could set a record

By David Nivens
The High Point Enterprise

Volunteers at the Archdale "Get Out the Vote" office work the phones. From front to rear are Barbara Ewings, David Burnette and Vernel Gibson.
GUILFORD COUNTY - If trends hold, early voting could end today with the largest single-day turnout ever.

More than 15,000 people voted Thursday in Guilford County to bring the total to 118,368 voters since early voting began in mid-October, breaking the previous record of 77,857 set in 2004.

October 25, 2008

By Bill Cotterell
Florida Today

Congressional Democrats and the Florida NAACP appealed to Gov. Charlie Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning for help with election problems Thursday as early voters swamped polling places across Florida.

But aides to Crist and Browning said their offices couldn't extend voting hours or order an extra day of Sunday voting. And both men stand by the much-discussed "no match, no vote" law, staff members said.

» Read More

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