<http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=8989&type=UTTM>Yet another reason to get rid of electronic voting systems. MCM
Broken poll book doubles the wait in Takoma Park STEVE LASH Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer November 4, 2008 1:41 PM http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=8989&type=UTTM Voters at Takoma Park Middle School waited up to two hours this morning to cast their ballots due to a broken Electronic Poll Book, the computer system election officials use to confirm a voter's address and date of birth, said an election judge at the Montgomery County precinct. The poll book, which collapsed at 8 a.m., was one of three the Takoma Park-Silver Spring precinct had at the 7 a.m. opening of the polls. The two-hour wait was double the hour-long line-standing reported in the early hours of voting in other areas of the county. Prior to the breakdown, voters proceeded through the line at a relatively brisk pace of less than an hour, said Chief Democratic Election Judge Marlon Sellow. But with the breakdown came the long lines and his frequent calls to the Montgomery County Board of Elections, hoping the agency could provide a replacement machine, but none was available, Sellow said. "Every 20 minutes I call, politely begging," Sellow said, adding he was sympathetic to the board's plight in an election expected to see record turnout in the county, state and nation. "I know they're swamped." To calm the concerns of the voters, whose patience he praised, Sellow said he told them the precinct was not provided enough Electronic Poll Books to accommodate the large turnout. This incomplete truth - after all, the problem was not quantity but quality - helped to maintain the voters' faith in the system, Sellow said. "If they know that a machine is down, they may just walk away," he said. Voters who spoke after casting their ballots said they did not mind the wait in what they expected to be an especially historic election. "Not too bad," John Maynard said of the wait. "I expected it today." Maynard added that waiting to cast a vote is the way Election Day should be, with large voter participation. "You're almost happy to see long lines," he said. "You expect it in Takoma Park. It's such a politically active city." Takoma Park City Councilman Terry Seamans, who spent the morning shuttling elderly and disabled voters to the polls, said his first inkling that something was amiss was when he was dropping more people off at the middle school than he was picking up there. "Nobody was coming out," he said. "I thought it was a black hole." Seamans said he was not surprised that voters were willing to wait so long to vote rather than go home, get to work or run errands. "It's not a year to give up," he said. Meanwhile, back near the polling booths, Sellow made a vow as he recalled President Bush's defeat of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, which came down to a single state and a controversial recount hampered by the difficulty of reading ambiguous ballots. "We're not going to be Florida," Sellow said. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
