Election Protection: Recent Updates
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Forty-three of Cuyahoga County's 573 voting places either failed to open on time or couldn't get some or all of their electronic voting machines to work. In Shaker Heights, voters who showed up first-thing were turned away temporarily because electronic voting machines were not working. The poll workers later reverted to paper ballots and began welcoming voters.
Election Protection volunteers and the EP hotline received widespread reports of voting machine problems leading to delays, as well as problems with confusion implementing the state’s photo ID requirement. Additionally, one polling place opened late because of an overnight break in. A local TV station aired footage of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s battle with an optical scan voting machine, which repeatedly rejected her ballot.
Watch the Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxCI9hJKXno
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Franklin: Voter voted for one candidate, another came up. Voter had to cancel and try a few more times. Happened multiple times. Voter said something at the polling place, but no one was concerned.
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Franklin: Three of five machines down, and voter stood in line from 6:30AM to 11:30AM before voting.
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Hamilton: Voter attempted to vote YES on issue 4 and NO on issue 5, but the machine wouldn't allow the vote on issue 5. Ballot only accepted the vote on issue 5 when issue 4 was left blank.
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Cuyahoga: Voter tried to vote for Melody Stewart, a candidate in a local judicial race. Vote was recorded as being for opponent. Voter corrected vote, and was told by election officials that the machine had been having problems all morning.
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Franklin: Voter instructed to use provisional ballot because poll worker thought, incorrectly, that voter had requested absentee ballot.
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Franklin: Voter has voted in same precinct for three years, but poll workers made him use provisional ballot because he was listed as "non-deliverable." Despite having driver's license, poll workers insisted there was nothing they could do. Many other voters had the same problem and were directed to vote by provisional ballot.
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Holmes: Student voter was given conflicting information regarding whether she could vote using her home address when her driver's license indicated her student address.
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Delaware: Voter tried to vote with driver's license with old address, a letter from the DMV indicating her new address, and an electric bill with hew new address. She was allowed to vote but nervous because poll workers recorded the last four digits of her license number.
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Delaware: Poll worker refused to let voter vote, despite the fact that his driver's license matched the voting rolls, because a designation by his name indicated that mail sent to his address was returned. Various hotlines assured voter of his right to vote. poll worker refused, but then relented.
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Cleveland: Some of the machines were not working, some machines were having paper malfunction and they would just quit in the middle of them voting. People are not sure that their votes went through.
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Cincinnati: Volunteer contacted us and stated that a potential 1 hour line was forming at this location because people were having problems inserting their ballats into the e-scan machines. Volunteer said he would follow up.
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Cincinnati: A police cruiser was parked about 30 feet from the entrance to bldg. at this precinct. Two officers were in the car, motor running, just watching the entrance to the polling place. Didn't seem to be on a call; were there for a while; no flashing lights.
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Cincinnati: A voter from Roselawn called WDBZ talk radio (AM1230) to say that she first "Xed" then filled in her choices. The machine rejected her ballot, saying incorrectly that she voted twice for a judge. Instead of giving her a new ballot, they put her "spoiled" ballot into an envelope.
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Cincinnati: Her only ID is a Metro fare card, issued by SORTA (Southwest Ohio Transit Authority). It has her picture and her address. She allowed poll worker to accompany her inside to ask about her right to vote. She was first told that she had to vote provisionally. The poll worker made a 2nd call and was told she could vote a regular ballot. Note: A Democratic observer/monitor inside the polling place had a copy of a court order that gave an inclusive definition of "government" ID. This was helpful.
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Cincinnati: Long lines, piled on a wall, 4 people waiting to vote sitting in chairs, lady got upset and left, doesn't want to vote. Confusing, not sure where to vote, not a private place to vote, poll workers with poor hygiene.
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Columbus: voter was forced to vote provisional ballot when she should have been allowed to vote a regular ballot. Also, polling place was still locked at 9:00 a.m. Voter's polling place had not changed and she still had a copy of the notice from the voter registration, but because a piece of mail had been allegedly returned to sender, her registration was "red-flagged."
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Elyria (Lorain): Voted on a machine — before submitting, pressed button for a summary. Could not see Senate race vote. Called over election staff; couldn't help. DID see full ballot at conclusion of vote. Called Board of Elections later; they suggested that she needed to scroll down to see entire summary. She couldn't say, after the fact, if that would have worked.
Voting machines are causing problems in Dekalb and Fulton counties.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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South Fulton: machines not working at 7:00. poll workers told people waiting to vote that they could fill out paper ballots and the poll workers would enter them into the voting machines when the machines started working
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Gwinnet: a woman was told she had to show ID even though she knew she didn't need an ID in order to vote. Was not given any other alternatives. Cookie was the name of the woman at the polling location who asked for the ID. Shorty Howell Community Center was the polling location. Cookie then insinuated that the complainant was not a citizen of the United States.
Enterprising pollworkers in Kansas are using hand lotion to solve sporadic problems with the county's touch-screen voting system. Machines have rejected the encoded cards that voters plug into the machines, forcing shutdowns and re-coding. Poll workers in Johnson County are using hand lotion to prevent the machines from spitting out the cards.
Election Protection is working with local election officials to extend voting hours in Allegheny County, where machine problems delayed early morning voting, and voters were not provided with sufficient paper ballots. Similar problems were noted in Lebanon County.
EP poll monitors encountered countywide problems with voting machines in Allegheny County, where machines were not working and where there was a lack of paper or provisional ballots. Long lines resulted, with some voters leaving polling places without voting. EP officials were following up with election officials to resolve the problems. Additional voting machine-related delays were reported in Philadelphia and in Lebanon County.
Voting in Lebanon County will continue past the scheduled closing time to accomodate for problems this morning.
Election Protection is also reporting:
- Philadelphia: Gentleman who appeared to be an official was causing a disturbance, creating problems, intimidation voters, cursing, etc. Those doing registration continually had to tell him to get behind the machines. He harassed one female voter, who ended up becoming frustrated and left without voting.
- Allegheny: In heavily minority precinct, poll wasn't open at 7am. Voter told to return at 8, and then again at 9, but had to go to work.
- Allegheny: Ten voters turned away from 7:10am to 8:38am, when machines were fixed. There were no paper ballots.
- Allegheny: Voter's ballot was incomplete and contained only choices for Governor, Senator, Reprentative, and referendum, leaving out State Senate.
- Allegheny: Poll workers demanded ID from black voter in Republican district, finally backing down.
- Allegheny: Only a fraction of polling place's machines—three—were running at 7am. Voter was told machines wouldn't be working till 8am. There were no provisional ballots in the meantime.
- Allegheny: Three people have not been to go through all the screens on the voting machine. Each stopped in a different place. One, the voter hit the vote button on the screen, but the ballot stayed on the screen and a message said "Insert cartridge." Second voter: couldn't see candidate's name on the screen (major-party candidate) and had to type it in — did typing in the name nullify the selection of a party for the entire ballot? Third voter: left with a vague feeling that the vote wasn't counted, didn't get a Thank You screen, didn't like the help and left. The caller said other people were having trouble finding the vote button but still managed to find it.
- McKeesport (Allegheny): All machines down at Sara Catholic High School. 1 machine at YMCA in McKeesport—machine # MCK-W4-D0 523 Sinclare Street, McKeesport McKeesport Towers—Common Room Machine # MCK-W5-D0 6th Street, McKeesport.
- Wilkes-Barre (Bucks): The voting machines are out of synch. The machines zeroed out in the morning and the time calibrated. By the end of the day, they were an hour off and they were shutting down an hour prior to the polls closing. The machines had to be manually reset and there is a question of whether the votes are actually counted once the machines were reset. The caller is a Video the Vote volunteer and he says the problem was county wide.
- Pittsburgh: Voter was refused provisional ballot. she moved in the beginning of october and changed her voter registration when she changed her vehicle registration but she never received confirmation. when she went to her new polling place she was refused a provisional ballot, despite having ID with current address. election judge was unhelpful.
Numerous reports of machine failures and poll workers who were unable to operate voting machines in Cook County have led EP workers on the ground to ask voting officials to extend voting hours for citizens who were unable to cast their votes in the early morning hours.
The Election Protection hotline received reports that in Will County, Illinois, an election judge failed to show up and a polling place was still closed an hour after polls were supposed to open.
In Broward County, the Deerfield Beach polling place didn't open until 3.5 hours after it was supposed to because of machine problems. Election Protection attorneys on the ground are working to get the governor to extend voting hours at that polling place.
There were scattered reports of problems across Florida. Voting machine problems and the failure of an election judge to show up at the polls led to some delayed openings in Broward County. In Orange Park, a voting machine failure was forcing voters to use paper ballots. In Deerfield Beach, one predominantly African American precinct did not open for at least two hours when machines failed, and no paper ballots were available.
NPR Radio Interview: Click here to hear Elliot Mincberg, PFAW Foundation's General Counsel, discuss Election Protection operations in Florida.
Election Protection is also reporting:
- Miami-Dade: Voter voted in the same precinct as her husband but received wrong ballot with wrong candidates listed.
- Miami-Dade: Voter had to use multiple voting cards before being able to cast successful ballot. This happened to everyone voter could see.
- Miami-Dade: Voter voted straight Democratic ticket, and the machine improperly changed one vote to Republican candidate.
- Miami-Dade: Voter came from New York just to vote, but poll worker informed him that he was listed in rolls as deceased, with his grandmother's address next to his name.
- Duval: Voter registered three times and is still not listed on the rolls. She first registered shortly after turning 18, at the Jacksonville Housing Authority while registering for Setion 8 housing. She never received anything in the mail and registered again at a grocery store eight months ago. Finally, about one month ago, shortly before the registration deadline, she registered online. This morning she was turned away because she was not on the rolls.
- Broward: Poll worker was impatient and very rude with voters, particularly elderly voters. Voters left the polling booth as a result.
- Miami-Dade: Poll workers are redirecting voter to a different polling place where there are no parking places and police issuing tickets.
Indiana
Electronic voting machines were causing problems in Delaware County and Marion County. In Delaware County, computer errors were causing problems in 75 precincts, and in Marion County, touch-screen machines were not working in more than 10 percent of the county’s precincts, and voters were using paper ballots instead.
Voting in Cook County will continue past the scheduled closing time to accomodate for problems this morning.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Marion: Machines were not turned on; voters told to put paper ballots in big box; voters not informed whether votes would be counted.
Early Utah County voters were stymied by technical problems with the state's new voting machines, while some in Salt Lake City also saw delays at the polls. Voters reported waiting for more than an hour, and then had to leave for work.
Voters saw long lines in Denver in early voting, with voters leaving slow-moving lines before casting their votes.
Lawyers for the Colorado Democratic Party have lost their suit in Denver District Court to have voting hours in the city of Denver extended.
Voting machine problems, as well as a lengthy ballot, have been causing extremely long lines and voting delays. Meanwhile, voters report being dropped from the voter rolls — including one Hotline caller who served as an election judge in 2004, but was required to fill out a provisional ballot.
Election Protection is also reporting:
- Boulder: Woman lives in Latino neighborhood and saw "weirdo" man walking around the neighborhood wearing a mask with an "X" on it and telling individuals not to vote; also, she was an election official in 2004 but has since been dropped from the rolls and filled out a provisional ballot but wants to vote immediately rather than by provisional ballot.
- Boulder: Changed address with clerk but was not put on rolls. Has heard of other such incidents.
- Arapahoe: Caller recieved two phone calls stating that her polling location had changed. She went to the new polling location and was told she was in the wrong place. She was also asked her party affiliation by an unknown person. She went to the correct polling place and was not on the list. She voted provisionally. Caller had conversations with other voters who recieved a similar call. This also happened in the 2004 election. She is sure that she is registered to vote.
A poll worker was arrested and charged with assault, wanton endangerment and interfering with an election after a fight erupted between that poll worker and voter in Louisville.
Voters in the Town of Menasha were reportedly asking voters to show a photo ID, even though there is no photo ID requirement in the state.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Oneida: Voter complained that an organization called "Fair Wisconsin" was calling voters with a misleading message regarding a gay marriage amendment. Said the message told voters to vote no if they are in favor of the amendment.
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Waukesha: Voter kept receiving robocalls regarding marriage amendment from "Fair Wisconsin." She called the organization back. Caller thinks the messages are aimed at confusing people but has not been able to reach anyone at the organization.
Reports from the field in Chicago indicate that the most common problems encountered today were associated with polling places running low on archive quality pens for marking the paper ballots, and problems with ballots where Election Judges initialed the ballots in the wrong place. Touch screen problems associated with voter cards getting stuck in the touch screen machines and machines freezing up also occurred.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Lombard (DuPaige): Concerned that scanner at his polling place did not count his scantron sheet; he arrived early a.m., counter was at 3, did not move to 4 when his sheet entered. Next guy tipped it to 4. Concerned that his vote did not count — wanted reassurance that the paper ballot would be counted.
There were reports of 300-500 people waiting 2.5-3 hours to vote at a location in Prince George's county because several machines are down. A voter in Prince George's county also reported that police officers are randomly asking people for identification.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Bladensburg (Prince George’s): Ballot for candidates only stayed up for a few seconds, and he wasn't able to vote for a candidate. All of the other voting questions stayed up for ample time. He reported it to the poll workers. Also, there were people outside the polls with false signs listing the Republican candidates as Democrats, specifically Michael Steele.
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Baltimore: voter tried to vote for O'Malley, but Erhlich's name kept popping up. Wife says same thing happened to her.
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Baltimore: voter was 21st in line at the 7 a.m. opening. Everyone was given their electronic cards. When tried to vote, all machines went down but card was already processed. Required people to fill out paper (provisional) ballots. Then 3 machines became available. She was told to go vote on the machine but they had already taken back the cards. She was sent back and forth between the "machine" judges and the "cards" judges. Finally she just voted by provisional ballot.
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Baltmore: a voter received her voter card. When she inserted it, it said she had already voted. Then they were told to vote provisionally. Then they had her vote on another electronic machine on "some random card."
A voting judge in Washington state telephoned to say that he received a voicemail from a woman purporting to be Maria Cantwell which instructed him to vote in the wrong precinct.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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King: Caller reports this is the second incident of this kind. She received an automated call from someone purporting to be Maria Cantwell. Then a man's voice came on directing her to vote at an incorrect polling place.
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King: At 9:12 AM a voter recieved a call from candidate Maria Cantwell. During the call, a male voice broke came on a gave a change in polling place location.
The Tennessee Democratic Party has reportedly filed suit asking that voting hours be extended because of infrastructure problems throughout the state, involving voting machine problems, late openings, and long lines at the polls.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Davidson: caller said she and several other African Americans (while she was there) were told that they were on "inactive" status and couldn't vote. All had voted at same place recently, said there were no changes and were puzzled.
Callers reported that a group of people dressed in brown or black shirts at various polling locations in Pima County claimed to be preventing illegal immigrants from voting fraudulently, and this was intimidating Hispanic voters. A voter in Maricopa County who has voted in some place at same address for 11 years and this year switched her party affiliation and her address was changed in the registration list. She had to cast a provisional ballot because officials were telling her to vote somewhere else. An elderly voter in Pima County received at least three unsolicited phone calls from persons offering to pick up her absentee ballot and turn it in for her. The voter gave her ballot to a stranger who came to her door and drove away, but she has since called her local election office and been told that her absentee ballot has not been received. Another caller says the county of Maricopa changed her address, even though she has not moved. She called the elections commission and was told she would not be able to vote.
Election Protection is also reporting:
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Pima: We received a report that a group of people in brown shirts were videotaping voters entering and leaving the polls. They had been reported at another polling place earlier in the day.
In Jackson County, many people who expected to be able to vote at one precinct were told they weren't on the registration list and were turned away from the polls. The hotline caller who reported this said the precinct was a "mad house. The line was very long because so many people weren't on the list.
In Middlesex County, a voter registered in a registration drive at Rutgers University was told that the entire box of Rutgers registration forms had not been processed because of some irregularities on some of the forms (e.g. some had been filled out in pencil). The caller had filled out his form properly yet was not registered to vote and is now unable to vote. A caller in Hudson County was denied his right to cast a provisional ballot. In Monmouth County, a voter reported several police cars parked outside a polling place and uniformed officers congregated by the entrance to the polls. That problem also occurred in 2004.
A voter in Ramsey County was required to provide a photo ID to vote, as were others at the polling location. Photo ID's are not supposed to be required to vote in MN. This occurred in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood.
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Chester (Chesterfield) VA: He was a new voter. He showed his drivers license and voter registration card. He was told that was not enough ID. He showed his high school and college school IDs — both photo IDs — and was told that was not sufficient. He was told to produce a Federal ID or he would not be permitted to vote (he was not offered the provisional ballot option). He luckily had his social security card with him, and when he showed that he was permitted to vote.
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Voters in many states, including New York, Maryland, Arizona, Tennessee and California, reported not receiving the absentee ballots they had requested or receiving them just today, too late to return them to be counted.
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Sonoma, CA: The caller reported that several students, all of whom speak English as a second language, told her that their houses received intimidating calls the evening prior to the election saying "don't vote." The caller did not know whether the calls were live or recorded.
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San Francisco, CA: a Sheriff was inside a polling place - intimidating - he said he's there to protect the voters.
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Santa Clara, CA: 3 machines out of 5 are broken and out of ballots. Only 2 are working.
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San Diego, CA: Diebold machine — voter voted for a candidate and went back to review and found that the machine voted for a different candidate than she chose.
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Riverside, CA: Voter reporting extremely long lines at polling place. Polling place has 7 touchscreen voting machines, of which only 5 are functional. Voter has been waiting more than 30 minutes and is nowhere near the front of the line.
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San Diego, CA: when pressing the candidate selected, the machine would misregister the vote for the candidate immediately above the selected candidate
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San Diego, CA: Voter received phone message from someone claiming to be at the polling place, saying that she noticed his wife had not voted, yet had indicated she was going to vote for a certain candidate, and wanted to let her know the polls would be open for another hour.
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Los Angeles, CA: Citizen monitor reports that new machines are malfunction at two different locations and that ballots are bing put into boxes without being read, but that when the scanners begin functioning a county official has been asking poll workers to break open the ballot box to run them through the scanner. The poll worker has refused.
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Los Angeles, CA: a precinct was out of ballots as of 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
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Del Norte, CA: Voter voted on a touchscreen machine. At the final review page, she noticed that in between the list of judicial elections there was a line of text that read, "US Senate - NO." (Note: her US Senate vote was correctly displayed elsewhere on the review page) She indicated the problem to the poll worker but was told that "there is something wrong with the software." She asked for a printout of her vote but was told that a printout was not available. The poll worker did not write down her complaint. Voter believes it was a Sequoia machine.
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New Haven, CT: Police Officer was parked next to parking lot entrance. As cars pulled in, she was stopping them and in some cases, she asked voters to roll up the window and gave parking instructions. He said that this was unusual. She was standing in front of the parking lot entrance and stopping cars. Second incident at Tinker School, Waterbury Ct. (corner of Congress and High Winds Avenue): Waterbury cop was standing in front of the entrance of the school and standing there with hands behin his back. He appeared initimidating. He has them both on type.
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Wayne, MI: Challengers were preventing voters from waiting in approved areas prior to voting. In addition, challengers were intimidating election poll workers.
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Wayne, MI: Received phone call urging a vote against affirmative action ballot initiative. Recording told voter to "not forget to vote tomorrow" (she received call at 6:23 pm today). She did not hear the introduction and could not dial *69.
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Lexington, SC: He was 5th person to vote on the machine. When he entered vote for AG, who was running unopposed, it changed vote in box above (Treasurer or Comptroller, he thinks). When he did it in a different order, it erased vote above. Didn't seem to be malicious or linked to a particular party—just malfunction.
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Florence, SC: Voters were in line by 7 PM, and the machines automatically stopped accepting ballots at 7 PM. Poll workers were fairly rude (both to voters and to me on the telephone) and were not aware that they could use paper ballots. Voter had to be belligerent in order to get them to check with the county; they wanted to close up fully at 7 PM. County election commission was not answering phones.
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Santa Fe, NM: Someone called her this morning at 11am claiming they were from the Richardson campaign and told her that she needed to vote at a different precinct, 30 miles from her place. She went to the new precinct and was told that she was not on the rolls. She voted provisionally there. She later called the caller id number on her cell phone from the morning call that she received, and got a message of an organization called "The State Employee Alliance Communication Workers of America"
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Ada, ID: Voter and her husband arrived at 6:15 pm. Long lines — voter was told that the long line would take 3-3.5 hours. Voter and her husband left without voting.
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DeSoto, MS: When he arrived at his polling place, they were out of ballots with several hundred people waiting to vote. He eventually got a ballot after they obtained 400 more ballots, but (1) he thinks they will run out again, and (2) when he went to the scanning machine to scan his ballot, it rejected the ballot such that he was instructed to simply put the ballot in a box for it to be counted later. The officials at the poll informed him that the ballots were "too expensive," which is why they didn't obtain more in advance.
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