Glitches made voting tough for some
By Richard Wolf and Alan Gomez, USA TODAY 08 November 2006

Voters in many states endured long lines, complex rules, balky machines and confused poll workers Tuesday — but most election experts called it progress.

Problems at polling places were widespread, forcing eight states to extend voting hours. None of the problems, however, rose to the level that plagued the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Primary election meltdowns in Illinois, Ohio, Maryland and elsewhere also were not repeated.

"It looks like it actually went better than everybody expected," said Doug Lewis of the Election Center, which represents state and local elections officials. "My God, it's a big country, and you'd expect some glitches."

The worst problems were caused by computers, such as Denver's adventure with a digital voter verification system. Others were caused by fast-changing laws and court decisions that had voters and poll workers confused about what identification was required to vote. Still others were caused by a good thing: heavy turnout.

COLORADO VOTING: Denver's digital crashes mar voting

"We had several people say it's like the longest airport security line they've ever been in," said Julie Bowen of Denver, where voters waited two to three hours to vote. The upside? A chance "to meet lots of new neighbors."

Even elected officials had trouble negotiating the voting process. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan was asked for identification that wasn't required. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was turned away because he didn't have his voter registration card. Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot had to go home for better ID; fellow Rep. Jean Schmidt had trouble with her optical-scan voting machine.

Exit polls showed 88% of voters were confident the votes in their states would be counted accurately. Still, Chellie Pingree of Common Cause, which ran a hotline for aggrieved voters, said, "Many of our calls are from people who just don't trust their vote anymore."

In Denver, 55 centralized vote centers that replaced 400 neighborhood precincts caused traffic jams, made worse by the slow operation of the county's digital database and ballots crowded with initiatives. Even Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter waited nearly two hours to vote.

In Delaware and Marion counties in Indiana, computer errors caused problems in nearly 200 precincts. A court order extended voting for nearly three hours in Delaware County to make up for late starts.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, a federal judge ordered polls kept open an extra 90 minutes because of long lines and late openings caused by machine problems. The county was the scene of the worst voting problems during this year's primaries and had taken extensive steps to improve training for poll workers. County elections chief Michael Vu said some machines didn't work, and some technicians didn't show up or couldn't fix them.

Those and other problems were not unexpected in a system that has changed dramatically since Florida's adventure with "hanging chads

on punch cards in 2000. About 30% of the nation was working with new equipment this year under deadlines imposed by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Many experts viewed it as a test run for the 2008 presidential election and deemed it a success.

"We said there were going to be a few glitches, and there are," said Paul DeGregorio, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which was created after the 2000 voting debacle. "We're using technology. We're using electronics. At times, machines do break. But there's backups — paper backups, provisional voting."

Tova Wang, an elections expert at the Century Foundation, a non-partisan think tank, said, "There's no national meltdown. There's the kind of isolated problems that do disenfranchise people. None of this should come as a shock to anyone."

The FBI was called into Virginia to investigate possible voting irregularities after it received a call from state Elections Board Secretary Jean Jensen on Monday night. Federal investigators were reviewing reports that some voters received telephone calls directing them to the wrong polling places or discouraging them from voting, FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak said.

Problems crossed state lines:

- Some touch-screen machines didn't start. Others recorded votes incorrectly. "It's like a car or any other machines," said Tuscarawas County, Ohio, deputy elections director Sarah Kneuss. "Sometimes some ... don't work."

- Voters were turned away for lack of proper identification, even where strict laws requiring photo ID had been struck down by courts. The problem was reported in Arizona, Georgia, Missouri and other states with laws blocked by judges.

- Polling places ran out of paper ballots. In Jefferson County, Mo., voter Scott Brotherton said he had to wait an hour for more ballots. "I've counted 20 people walk away," he said.

Voting hours were extended because of delayed openings, long lines or machine malfunctions in parts of seven states: Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Voting at one site in Madison, Wis., was extended because of delays caused by a bomb threat.

There were other reports of suspected dirty tricks. In Arizona, three men, one of them armed, questioned Hispanic voters outside a Tucson polling place. In New Jersey, vandals attacked Republican Senate candidate Thomas Kean's headquarters.

In Maryland, Republicans paid for sample ballots meant to link GOP candidates for governor and Senate to the state's dominant Democratic Party.

"Things appear to have gone much more smoothly than a lot of people feared," said Dan Tokaji, an Ohio State law professor. "It certainly could have been a lot worse."