10.18.2004

Voting Gaffes Start Early

Early voting started in some states today(last week here in TN) and problems are already creeping up. Some of them major:



Yeah, that's right. If you look just above Ralph Nader's name, which was supposed to have been the one removed, you'll see John Kerry's name painfully absent. So, Ohioans, you've got two choices. Bush/Cheney or Nader/Camejo. Never mind that Nader has been banned from the ballot. What we meant to say was that John Kerry was being banned from the ballot, instead.

I should point out that this error apparently didn't exist on all absentee ballots. Just a select few(or so they claim) in the Forest Park area. The Cincy Post has the skinny.

As well, problems occured in Florida on their first day to vote:

The problems in Florida included a brief computer system crash in one county and voter complaints of incomplete paper ballots. But there were no early reports of problems with the ATM-like touch-screen voting machines introduced since the troubled 2000 election.

Florida's early voting was touted partly as a way to avoid long lines on Nov. 2, but it turned out to be so popular that Lucien Gennaro, a police aide in Coral Springs, waited for an hour and finally had to leave for work.

"A lot of people who were waiting just left. I'll try again tomorrow," he said. "It was a little frustrating after what happened in 2000."

... State Rep. Shelley Vana said the absentee ballot she requested at a Palm Beach County site was missing one of its two pages, including proposed state constitutional amendments. She said election workers were indifferent when she pointed out the oversight.

"This is not a good start. If there are incomplete ballots out there, I can't imagine I would be the only one getting it," she said.

Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LePore did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

In Orange County, the computer system that lists eligible voters went down for about 10 minutes shortly after voting began, said Margaret Dunn, the senior deputy elections supervisor. She speculated a faulty Internet connection may have been to blame.

Several of Broward County's 14 polling places had trouble linking their computers to a supervisor's office to confirm voter eligibility, said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman at the Secretary of State Glenda Hood's office. Workers used paper lists and called the supervisor's office to verify eligibility, Nash said.

In Hillsborough County, computer networking problems caused delays of up to two hours. Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson said a malfunctioning router kept computers from automatically verifying voter registration and clerks had to call a central office to determine each voter's eligibility. The problems were eventually fixed, his office said.


Sounds like a winner. Computer networking problems, missing ballot sections, Florida really got their stuff together since 2000.
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