electionline Weekly

In Focus This Week

Super Duper Tuesday: Hits, misses, glitches, snafus, tornadoes and snow
Overall ‘national primary’ goes well coast-to-coast; some ballots still being counted

By M. Mindy Moretti
Electionline.org

The nation’s first, almost national primary day featured many of the usual election-day problems, including long lines, confusion over consolidated polling places, voting machine “glitches” and provisional ballots.

But Tuesday’s vote was overshadowed in several southern states hosting contests when a line of storms swept through the area touching off tornadoes and killing 55 people.

In Alabama, the officials were prepared for the severe weather by ensuring that they would have back-up generators at the ready. In Tennessee, polling places became shelters. In both Tennessee and Arkansas some polling places were forced to shut down early because of the deadly weather. Brook Thompson, Tennessee’s state election director, told CNN that several polling locations were forced to close early after emergency officials told poll workers that they needed to relocate for safety.

“I don’t think this affected a large number of voters,” Thompson told the network. “I think everyone was trying to get home.”

Several polling locations in New Jersey faced problems with their electronic voting equipment on Tuesday — including a precinct where Gov. Jon Corzine (D) was casting his ballot. However, according to elections officials most of the problems were the result of human error and not with the equipment.

In Missouri, foul weather and a few technical problems marred the vote in some places. In Greene County, one polling place was flooded; in Jasper County, some voters found their names not on the rolls; and in St. Louis County voters complained that poll workers seemed ill-prepared, especially with regard to the state’s voter ID requirements.

Although New Mexico held caucuses, provisional ballots became a huge issue in the state and counting of those ballots continues at press time. With all but one precinct reporting, more than 17,000 provisional ballots had been cast with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton holding a 1,092 vote lead over Sen. Barack Obama.

State Democratic chair Brian Colon took responsibility for the problems.

“We absolutely miscalculated and I apologize,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s a tragedy when folks are not afforded the opportunity to vote.”

Electionline.org had five observers in the field on Tuesday. Their observations are below.

Arizona
Polls opened at 6 a.m. with only a handful of voters making their way to the voting booth. However, as the morning progressed and more people started to head to work, lines began forming at some polling places.

Most voters entering polling places seemed aware of the state’s voter ID requirement and had driver’s licenses in hand ready to be checked in. Throughout Maricopa County there were also bilingual signs posted directly in front of the doors to the polling places listing in detail acceptable forms of ID.

However, despite the signage, not all voters were prepared to show ID when they arrived. One elderly voter in a Scottsdale polling place only had his Costco card (which does have a photo on it). After much discussion, the polling place supervisor allowed the voter to cast his ballot, which, it turns out he had to cast provisionally because he had already requested an absentee ballot.

The biggest bone of contention and cause for confusion on Tuesday seemed to come from the consolidation of polling places. Many voters seemed to show up at their normal polling places only to be told that they needed to go somewhere else to vote because of the consolidation.

Maps showing the consolidated districts and those closed by were posted in each polling site but because there weren’t many streets listed on the maps, some voters and the poll workers helping them seemed confused about where the voter needed to go.

Yvonne Reed, spokeswoman for Maricopa County, said that individual polling places were listed on each voter’s sample ballot that was mailed out in advance of the election.

In one Phoenix-area polling place, an angry voter who was assisting an elderly gentleman on oxygen said, “This seems to happen at almost every election. We never vote in the same place twice.”

At one polling location, as many as seven people were sitting at a table completing provisional ballots at one time. The reasons for completing the ballots ranged from improper ID, not on the voters rolls, and requested an early ballot that the voter then failed to mail.

One young voter who said he was voting in his very first presidential election had requested an absentee ballot but then he “heard those ballots aren’t counted until weeks later” so he decided to come to the polling place and cast his vote — provisionally.

Maricopa County, like all of Arizona, is required by federal law to provide voting materials in both Spanish and in English. All polling places seemed well stocked with printed bilingual information. Whether or not there was a Spanish-speaking poll worker on hand is a different story. At one polling place, when an observer inquired as to who was the Spanish-speaking poll worker, the election judge failed to answer the question and asked the observer to leave the polling site.

Polling places seemed adequately staffed although as a poll worker at one location mentioned, they could have used a lot more help. That became evident as in many locations, the poll worker who ensured that the optical scan ballots were placed in the machines also became the poll worker providing directions for those who had shown up at the wrong polling place which at times caused lines for form of those wishing to submit their ballots.

If the non-stop election-night chatter on television networks was a bit too much, Maricopa County voters had an alternative. Instead of tuning in to Brian, Katie, Charles or Wolf, voters could visit the county’s elections Web site and watch a live feed of Recorder Helen Purcell and her staff counting the ballots.–- Mindy Moretti

California
Election day is a misnomer in California. With an estimated 50 percent of ballots coming in before election day as absentee and scattered in person early votes, California elections are turning into a two-week long affair.

The 2008 presidential primary was no different. The weekend before election day saw a steady stream of voters coming into the Orange County, Los Angeles, and Riverside County offices. These offices were open all weekend—even on Super Bowl Sunday. San Diego remained closed on Sunday despite long lines the day before. They paid the price for that decision on Monday – or at least their voters did – as some waited longer than an hour to cast an in-person absentee ballot by midday Monday.

In all four offices, election officials struggled to contend with the decision by Secretary of State Debra Bowen to decertify some electronic voting machines, except to meet accessibility requirements.

Facilities that had been set up to process tens of thousands of absentee ballots and hundreds of last minute voters were suddenly forced to manage hundreds of thousands of paper ballots and thousands of last minute voters. The physical facilities did not appear to be able to handle the volume.

Election day itself, in contrast, went relatively smoothly in precincts in Brea and Fullerton (Orange County) and Inglewood (Los Angeles County).

In Orange County, most precincts had at least one DRE on the fritz – the Hart InterCivic e-slates that can continue to be used in the state – and sometimes two. In all precincts, officials provided a paper option for those voters who wanted to skip the DREs.

Older voters seemed to opt for the paper option, especially in precincts where workers volunteered the option.

Contrast this with one precinct in Brea where an older Asian voter was clearly confused with the electronic voting machine, and a poll worker showed annoyance in having to help her with the machine ultimately voting her ballot. In this same precinct, the cardboard box that was designed to receive paper ballots was located such that precinct workers had to take the paper ballots from the voters and put them into the box — a clear violation of the rules.

In Los Angeles, only a few problems were observed. In one precinct, two “decline to affiliate” voters had to ask about which booth they needed to vote in after workers first told them they could vote in “any booth.”  (If they voted in a Republican booth, and in the Republican primary, their vote would not have counted.) In almost no case were voters offered the “American Independent Party” option along with the Democratic one. 

Finally, in the generally Republican and Democratic precincts, there was no evidence of the “bubble” problem that was received scattered coverage around Los Angeles. — Paul Gronke

Georgia
Super Tuesday was the first time all Georgia voters were required to present photo ID at the polls. The new rules didn’t seem to have a negative impact  turnout in Chatham County where it may have hit 50 percent, more than twice as high as the primary turnout in 2004 according to the Savannah Morning News.

At the polls, voters expressed either ambivalence or support for the law.

After casting her ballot at Bull Street Baptist Church Tuesday morning, Marion Dobson, a neighborhood resident for 45 years, said, “Working people have one [a photo ID]. We can’t complain because life is life.”

Older voters “usually come to the poll with their ID in hand,” poll manager Carolyn Blackshear said while the morning fog was lifting outside the Old Courthouse on Wright Square.

When asked about the ID requirement, Christian Petersen, a graphic designer and first time voter at First Presbyterian Church said, “They had like eight options so it wasn’t that difficult to find something.”

At Georgetown Elementary, Nathanial Williams said, “I think that should be in line for the simple reason that it cuts out fraud. It authenticates the fact that you are a citizen, you’re not a criminal.”

“Most everybody has a driver’s license or a state ID,” Robin Maddox, the poll manager at Bible Baptist Church said.

The photo ID requirement arguably increased the time it took to check in voters. Lines and procedural delays frustrated voters and voting machines sat unused while poll workers scrambled to look at voters’ ID’s. “It surprised me that I had to fill out something,” Johnny Williams said about the voter check-in card. “That’s not necessary.”

Voters at Jonesville Baptist Church were spilling into the hall and out the door less than two hours before the polls closed. One voter complained that some were cutting in line while some voters were filling out check-in cards against the wall and the doors outside.

“The only complaints I heard in the line is that it’s just a slow process,” Edith Dunlap, a bus driver voting at Jonesville Baptist Church said. “It went well, I think it’s a bit slow but it’s worth it.

Lilly Robbins said it took her 20 minutes to vote. “I guess for the first time it was kind of unorganized … It should have been in and out.”

Provisional ballots were used sparingly. Kim Manigault, poll manager at Trinity Lutheran Church, that only two voters cast provisional ballots because they registered late and their names weren’t on the rolls.

“We knew this was going to happen because some people didn’t register in time … and they took it very well, they didn’t complain,” she said.

At Jonesville Baptist, poll manager Tameka Grant said that none of the 912 voters who had come to her poll by 6 p.m. had needed a provisional ballot.

When asked about provisional ballots, Dale Smiley, poll manager at Georgetown Elementary said, “We’ve got ’em but we haven’t had any yet. Hopefully we won’t.” — Kat Zambon

Illinois
The second most-populous county in the country with more than 1.35 million registered voters, Cook County needed more than 11,000 election judges (poll workers) and 2,000 equipment managers on Super Tuesday to run its 1,439 polling places with 2,290 precincts.

Already a daunting task, the county also had to face a familiar foe in February – a looming winter storm. With the threat of rain, sleet and snow in the forecast, the county conducted a last minute scramble to find as many poll workers as it could knowing some were not going to show due to weather conditions.

However even with the poll worker challenge, election day mostly went off without a hitch.

“Administratively it went well. There are always problems, but they were minimal,” said county clerk David Orr.  “We found a lot of judges canceling at the last minute due to traveling or weather concerns. But we found enough judges to make it work and were able to move people around.”

Before the election the county had also made an effort to get younger people – college and high school students – working at the polls. County election officials stated more than 500 college students applied to be election judges and the opportunity was also available to both high school juniors and seniors.

In most polling places the day began well, although some of the problems Orr mentioned included two polling places that were kept open an hour later after getting late starts in the morning.

Additionally, the county clerk’s office logged 3,100 calls from election judges calling a special hotline when they faced problems at the polls, from questions about a voter’s registration status to voting machine troubleshooting. The county not only uses this information to resolve issues as soon as possible on election day, but to also analyze and assess performance post-election.

On the front lines of the election, voters and election judges spoke highly of their experiences, both with voting machines and short wait times. Across the county 5,100 touch-screens with voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs) were deployed along with 2,290 optical scanners, both manufactured by Sequoia Voting Systems.

Voter Diane Grooms at the Brentwood Baptist Christian Academy in Des Plaines had a “positive voting experience” casting her ballot on a touch-screen voting machine.

Christina Accardo echoed those sentiments at the First Congressional Church in Berwyn.

“I do like the touch screens – they are easy.”

At the same Berwyn polling place, Marcia Mrazek, who has been an election judge for 10 years, said she found the transition a few years back to touch screens and optically-scanned paper ballots an easy one.

“I love technology and had no problem with it,” she said.

Voters also liked casting their ballots on paper, with one man at the St. Giles Parish Gleason Building in Oak Park describing it as “smooth as silk.”

Poll workers at several polling places noted long periods of few voters and short wait times which they speculated was possibly due to the 50,000 voters who cast ballots early during the previous weeks.

After polls closed, the county faced one more hurdle – reporting timely election results. At 11 p.m. after the November 2006 election, only half the results had been electronically transmitted back to the clerk’s office. This time around nearly 90 percent of the results were transmitted by the same time.

However Orr cautioned that sometimes a delay in final results is not the end of the world.

“The challenge is the really close races. The media needs to understand that these are unofficial results. Some delays are legitimate – like [processing] provisional ballots and late-arriving absentee ballots.” — Sean Greene 

New York
If a theme emerged from the city’s Super Tuesday presidential primary, it was that of access – to polling places, to machines and to ballots.

On a day when hundreds of thousands of football fans descended on lower Manhattan to see a victory parade, voters tried to navigate their way around street closures as well as heightened security, to get to polling places.

For voters with disabilities, the day will likely mark the end of a long history of limited access. Tuesday’s primary was scheduled to be the final time New York State’s one accessible voting center per jurisdiction provisions will be replaced with the federally-required one accessible machine per polling place in time for the September primary.

Access to the primary ballot of choice proved problematic for some voters as well, as sporadic complaints of machines not allowing votes to be cast for delegates, people left off the rolls and some confused about the nature of a closed primary arose at polls and election in offices visited in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Accessible Vote Centers
Each of New York City’s five boroughs had one vote center with accessible ballot marking devices. The machines, which offer a wide variety of inputs, including a touch-screen, sip/puff tube, foot pedals as well as headphones and keypad, could be used by any registered voter who lived in the borough.

The locations were not overly popular though.

By 3 p.m., only about 50 voters had cast ballots at Manhattan’s center. At least some of those were cast by stand-by poll workers waiting at the Board of Election office to see if they would be assigned as fill-in election officials.

Unlike other precincts in the city – and contrary to state law – voters entering the building to cast ballots were asked by a security guard for a photo ID, which was scanned into a computer, before access to the elevators was granted. A poll worker stationed at the vote center incorrectly noted “every voter needs to show ID in New York before voting.”

Further, the elevators emitted no tone, making it perhaps more difficult for blind or visually-impaired voters to know when they could get to the 10th floor.

Brooklyn’s center, near a complex of court houses and government buildings, had no such ID requirement. Substantially more voters cast ballots at the center as well – an estimated 150 by early afternoon.

But it was not an easy trek for some.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said she took two buses and spent an hour and a half getting to the precinct. Once there, however, she said the accessible machine was worth it.

“It was beautiful. It talks to you. It tells you exactly what to do,” she said.

By September, each polling place will have at least one accessible voting system for people with disabilities, the result of a court order issued at the end of last month. The state will be the last to meet federal mandates for accessible voting per the Help America Vote Act.

Next year, all of the state’s estimated 20,000 lever voting machines will be replaced by paper-based optical scan systems.

Stumbling Blocks on the Way to the Poll
It was difficult to determine the impact of the Super Bowl victory parade on voters in lower Manhattan. But by 8 a.m., numerous streets had been closed. Two hours later, sidewalks were jammed with people.

One campaign volunteer standing on Catherine Street, a few blocks from the parade route, said she thought most people would be unaffected.

“From everything we’ve heard, it’s not keeping anyone away, because the polls are open until 9 p.m.,” said Sydney Crawford, a campaign volunteer. “If anything, it might help turnout. It’ll get more people out today.”

Registration, machine troubles and confusion about primaries

Scattered news reports – as well as some eyewitness observation at two Board of Elections offices – revealed a number of registration problems on Election Day. Those included voters certain that they were registered not finding their names on rolls, some who said they were registered for the wrong party and some who did not want to be limited to vote for the candidates of their party of registration (and a few independents who felt left out).
Still, the number of problems in New York City seemed reasonable considering the high turnout. Some reports indicated that 1.7 million Democrats voted on Tuesday, compared to 715,000 in the 2004 primary.

Reports of non-functioning machines trickled in as well.

One election observer in lower Manhattan said her precinct’s lever machine was not allowing voters to cast ballots for delegates, only candidates for president. A 45-minute delay ensued as election officials told voters to wait because “the machines [were] old.” — Dan Seligson