Voting off to rocky start in Marion, Delaware Counties
WTHR13 Eyewitness News  November 7, 2006
 
At least two Indiana counties had problems with electronic voting machines Tuesday morning, and Marion County was among them.

Indiana's voter ID law received its first test in a general election, but that wasn't what caused the problems in Delaware and Marion Counties.

In Delaware County, an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts, and election officials sought a court order to extend the voting tonight.  Voters in Delaware County will now be able to vote until 8:40 p.m. - almost three hours beyond the planned 6 p.m. poll closure.

Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger says start cards that activate the push-button machines for voters were programmed incorrectly.
     
In Marion County, paper ballots had to be used in more than 100 of the 914 precincts where touch-screen machines were not working. County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler says some poll workers had trouble starting and running machines. She also says some inspectors didn't show up as scheduled, forcing her to find last-minute substitutes.

One caller told Eyewitness News that the election official at the precinct at 56th and Illinois in Marion County said he didn't have time to turn the machines on.

Sadler said the number of complaints, which reached a peak early Tuesday morning, was tapering off.

Seventh district candidates vote

Rep. Julia Carson voted early, like many of the candidates on the ballot. Carson, who faces a challenge from Republican Eric Dickerson in the state's seventh congressional district, said she's had some contentious races "all of my congressional career, and this is no different than the rest of them. Just - the game is the same, just the name has been changed," she said.

Dickerson also voted early Tuesday morning. He appeared relaxed and joked that television cameras shouldn't show his ballot as he fed it into the voting machine. "Not that you don't know how I vote," he said with a smile.