[Vision2020] Problems Plague Election Administrators

[Ted Moffett]

All:

I'm speechless... But this is just what I expected:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2591877

"I was not going to be able to have an election with the machines," said
Noren, "because I didn't have the ballots, and the supplies necessary to
load the ballots. I had the machines and nothing else."

In the continued fracas over electronic voting, election administrators
across the country headed down to the wire still not sure whether they have
enough of the newfangled machines that caused such an uproar in some states
in 2004. They also are struggling to train hundreds of new poll workers on
the intricacies of using and servicing the electronic devices.

Hampered by last-minute deliveries and a confusing array of new voting
rules, election officials said they can only hope they don't face a rerun of
2004 long poll lines caused by malfunctioning machines, poll workers who
didn't understand the machines or didn't show up, and recounts that in some
cases took weeks to complete.

Noren resolved her supply problem Wednesday morning after she withheld
payment on the county's $1.3 million contract for the machines, she said.
Electronic Systems & Software assigned a senior vice president to the case.
Still, at this late stage in an election that could change the majority of
Congress, the equipment delay has put her 10 days behind in training and two
weeks behind in testing the machines.

"It has to be right. I'm not going to do something that isn't," she said.

Similar stories have been repeated across the country but their scope and
severity are impossible to determine because there are no federal rules for
reporting such problems and there's no repository for keeping them, voting
advocates say.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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