Computer Glitch Delays Corzine’s Vote   (NJ)

Jeremy W. Peters    NYTimes Blog   05 February 2008

Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey is known a punctilious individual. When he says he’ll be somewhere at a certain time, he means it. So you can imagine his dismay – and the dismay of workers at his polling place in Hoboken where Mr. Corzine arrived at about 6:15 this morning to vote – when his voting machine wouldn’t work.

The culprit was apparently a computer glitch, and it affected more than one machine

But after about 45 minutes elections officials successfully rebooted the voting machines, and Mr. Corzine was able to vote.

“If you look across the state, this kind of thing will happen on a random basis in almost any election,” Mr. Corzine told reporters after he voted, according to a transcript of his remarks made available by his office. “Unfortunately it happened here, but we got the machine working well now.”

About a dozen other voters were turned away while the machines were rebooted, The Associated Press reported.

By about 9 a.m., the incident was already getting widespread national attention. A reporter on Fox News called the situation embarrassing, and surmised that Mr. Corzine had “presumably” cast his vote for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, whom he has endorsed.

After he took a few questions about his abortive first attempt to vote, Mr. Corzine declined to make any predictions about which Democratic candidate might prevail after the votes are tallied tonight. Though he noted that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois seemed to be gaining momentum in recent days.

“We have no idea who the nominee will be at this stage,” he said. “I think it should be Senator Clinton. As a lot of people say, we have two great candidates and whoever it turns out to be, we Democrats will unite around the nominee.”