Reports of Voting Problems

Nov. 7, 2006 — -- With polls in only a few states closed, there were no reported major national problems, but there were many localized problems. It was too soon to tell how significant any of these problems will be.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties appeared to be comfortable at this hour. Luis Miranda, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said that "things are flowing smoothly, we are encouraged and want to remind people to vote. If they do encounter problems, they should tell us."

A Republican source said that while party officials still felt that things were going relatively smoothly, they were concerned about the possibility that Michigan senate candidate Mike Bouchard's Web site was hacked, and machines had been tampered with in New Jersey. Party officials were also concerned that they ran out of ballots in a heavily Republican county in New Mexico, but in balance, they were comfortable with the process of the election.

Interestingly, on the national level, for the first time, Republicans are being far more aggressive in pointing out problems than the Democrats. Republican lawyers, however, are not on the same political page. They are in agreement with the Democrat attorneys that everything, on the whole, is going relatively well.

Below is a Ballotwatch State-by-State Overview

Keep in mind that this information is from a variety of sources: party officials, observers and interest groups from all sides. There are well over 50 million people likely to vote today. Problems and issues should be kept in that context.

Missouri

There were sporadic complaints of issues with some optical scanning machines not working correctly in the morning in St. Louis. The secretary of state's office said voters were allowed to fill out ballots and leave them for election officials to put through the machines later in the day.

Republicans and Democrats both say that they're seeing "better than expected" turnout across the state and that the election systems appear to be working as advertised. A Democratic spokesman says he's glad the new optical scan and touch-screen systems were rolled out during the primary season as there appear to be "fewer rough spots" than the prior run.

Ohio

Ohio is the No. 1 state getting called about at nationwide hotline centers run by Election Protection -- a consortium led by People for the American Way, the NAACP, and the Lawyer Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law. According to calls at the Election Protection hotline in Ohio, there were large problems in the district of East Cleveland (Cuyahoga County) -- all the machines at one precinct crashed and they did not hand out paper ballots.

In Franklin County there were problems with the voter ID rules. Poll workers incorrectly turned away people with driver's licenses that didn't match their home addresses on the rolls. Local Republican lawyers have not returned calls.

The DNC says there were many reports of ID confusion by poll workers. In Columbus, people with driver's licenses that did not match the rolls were forced to vote provisionally, which should not happen.

Also in Columbus, voters received notices telling them that their polling location changed, and redirecting them to churches that were not polling sites.

There were reports of long lines and problems at other places that have been attributed to issues like printer malfunctions, but have been resolved and things are moving smoothly.

The Associated Press reported that many long lines and machine problems plagued the early morning period in Ohio. Several actual candidates on the ballot had problems, including Jean Schmidt (whose ballot wouldn't scan), Republican Rep. Steve Chabot had ID problems but was able to vote after he drove home to get proper ID. There were also rumors that Lee Fisher had early morning problems with machines but eventually voted.

Roughly 40 precincts in Cuyahoga County had to switch to paper ballots after machine problems

New Jersey

In New Jersey -- home of a key and close Senate race between Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican Tom Kean Jr. -- Republicans are upset about reports that machines are malfunctioning. The reports say Menendez is pre-selected on machines when voters try to use them. Voters tried to cast their ballot for Tom Kean but couldn't. It was unknown if it was caused by glitches or something malicious.

State Democrats say that the issue was simply a question of technical glitches that have since been resolved. No foul play was involved and this is just a sign of Republicans getting desperate in the face of a losing race, they say.

The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey has dispatched investigators to run down complaints about the voting machine problems. The counsel for the N.J. Republican State Committee, Mark Sheridan, says he has four sworn affidavits -- and has received more than two dozen calls -- alleging that some of the state's electronic voting machines were either "pre-voted" for Menendez, or were otherwise inoperable when voters sought to cast votes for Kean.

Sheridan says complaints had come in from five counties. Some of the polling places affected are in Passaic, Paterson, Scotch Plains and North Bergen -- though Sheridan refused to be more specific, citing a fear of depressing voter turnout in the affected locations.

Pennsylvania

Poll hours have been extended to 9 p.m. to compensate for machine malfunctions. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law plans to file a lawsuit about delays and problems at the polls due to machine malfunctions. They want Lawrence County voting hours extended to compensate for machine malfunctions.

The DNC tells ABC News the problems with scanning machines and touch screen machines have left voters in Lancaster and Lawrence counties unable to vote in many instances. Officials in Lancaster are voluntarily extending voting hours until 9 p.m., and the state party will make an effort to extend voting hours in Lawrence.

Republicans continue to complain that voters in a number of counties are having trouble voting for incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum. They say when voter hit Santorum it comes up for Democratic challenger Bob Casey, and whenever you select a full line Republican it switches to full-line Democrat.

Thay say this is happening in 12 counties: Erie, Crawford, Butler, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Jefferson, Center, Cumberland, Luzerne, Lackawanna, Bucks and Lebanon.

Election officials in most counties have yet to return our calls, but in Luzerne County officials say the Santorum team's claims are untrue.

"Absolutely false," a Luzerne County election official said. "Those calls have come from political operatives and the Republican Party. We did not get one call from our election officials at the polls. None of them called to report these issues. Rovers were dispatched nonetheless and all found no problems with the machines."

In response, Democrats say these were just two isolated incidents in Cumberland county, machine glitches that have since been fixed.

Abe Amoros, a spokesman for PA Democrats, says: "I believe it's a concerted effort on their part to besmirch the process. It's irresponsible for them to play the fear card on Election Day. The time for campaigning came to an end yesterday."

There was a high volume of complaints about machine malfunctions in Allegheny County.

So far, ABC News has confirmed that polling hours have been extended to 9 pm in Lancaster and Lebanon Counties in Pennsylvania

A would-be voter was arrested at a polling place in Allentown, where election workers said he smashed an electronic voting machine with a paperweight, according to an AP report.

Authorities said they didn't know what caused the outburst.

"He came in here very peaceably and showed his ID, then he got on the machine and just snapped," volunteer Gladys Pezoldt told the AP.

Police said the man faced charges of felony criminal mischief and tampering with voting machines.

Indiana

Close to half the precincts in Marion County are experiencing machine problems. In Delaware County, officials have said that votes cast during the extended deadline (after 6 p.m.) must be provisional. Democrats are fighting this.

According to Jennifer Wagner, Democratic spokeswoman, "The precincts with malfunctioning equipment are disproportionately in African-American areas, which we are expecting may affect the [Democratic incumbent Rep.] Julia Carson race. However, we are expecting that the malfunctions will be dealt with in days to come because we will have to hand-count ballots in close races."

According to the DNC, press reports have been incorrect. The only place where polling place hours have been extended is Delaware County, the DNC says. The only pending issue, according to the DNC, is whether voters in Delaware County, where the polls have been extended to 8:40 p.m., will get to vote regular ballots or provisional ballots during the extended voting hours.

Maryland

Despite fears of widespread voting troubles, the voting process has been remarkably smooth and efficient, says Terry Lierman, chairman of the Maryland Democratic party, who also says voter turnout is medium to high.

Audra Miller from the GOP echoes that, citing only minor problems such as e-poll issues.

Voter turnout has been medium to heavy.

Lierman also claims that there have been fliers in Prince Georges County, particularly in African American neighborhoods, that say, "Don't be a slave to Democrats."

Some voter complaints came into TrueVote MD, a non profit organization campaigns to verify voting, such as misalignment of machines, long lines. Long lines could also be due to complicated and lengthy ballot

North Carolina

According to Sun Times, Sandy Martin, voters registration and election director for Horry County, said she felt like pulling her hair out because of the chaos of this morning and you can blame it on technology. Martin said the Ivotronic election machines, which were used for the first time in June and again in the runoff elections, is a brand-new system still being learned by everyone.

"We've had some machine issues dealing with the flash cards that are in the voting machines," Martin said. "As you know, we had a wreck on U.S. 501 this morning and that has shut down everything over here. So, we he have had trouble getting our technicians to the precincts with voting machine problems."

Some Democrats have claimed that Republicans have made calls to voters saying photo ID is required to vote, which is not the case. Republicans deny that such calls were made.

Texas

Voting machines have been reported out of service in Houston, causing long lines and confusion. The AP says that a mix-up with an electronic voting machine forced voters to wait 45 minutes at a polling place in Fort Bend County, one of three counties whose residents were deciding the heated race to replace former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

About 45 minutes after voting began at 7 a.m., election workers at Oak Lake Baptist Church in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land discovered they had the wrong electronic voting machine that runs all the booths, said Gwen Ross, the election judge at the site.

The polling place was down about 45 minutes until the right machine could be delivered.

The campaign for Nick Lampson, the Democratic candidate running to replace DeLay, said voters were turned away from the polls because of the problem. The Lampson campaign said it planned to contact the Justice Department and Secretary of State's Office.

Michigan

The GOP has filed a lawsuit against the Democratic Party asserting that members of the Michigan Democratic Party wore colored vests that read "Can I help you," to impersonate poll workers.

Senate candidate Mike Bouchard's Web site was hacked and shut down today, according to a release from Bouchard's office.

South Carolina

Mostly smooth, except that more than a quarter of precincts in Lancaster County opened over an hour and a half late. One polling station was located in a church with controversial biblical scripture.

Tennessee

Contrary to prior reports, the DNC says lawyers with the Tennessee Democratic Party are not filing suit to extend voting hours.

Lawyers for Tennesse Democrats report that in Sullivan County at the Anderson Elementary School there was a complete machine failure that required voters to fill out paper ballots.  Workers did not have enough pencils, people were filling out paper ballots in the open because the place is in the gymnasium, and plenty of people just left the polls.

Democrat Senate candidate Harold Ford's campaign backed off complaints about a precinct in Jackson that reportedly shut down because their voting machines weren't working.

Ford's campaign told ABC News, "We heard this morning there were problems in Memphis and in Jackson with machines going down and some hassling of Dem poll workers."

"We now hear machines are back up and working. And we are monitoring poll worker problems. All seems to be clicking fairly well now," the campaign said.

New Mexico

Angry Republican Rep. Heather Wilson called for federal monitors to oversee voting in her home state after two heavily Republican precincts ran out of ballots hours after polls opened in Albuquerque. She called the mistake "beyond incompentence,'' according to an AP report.

"There must have been a zero left off the order,'' Deputy Secretary of State Ray Baray told ABC News.

He said that two precincts that should have gotten 1,500 and 1,700 ballots each, instead received 150 and 170.

"We put in the ballot order for the county clerk,'' Baray said. "When we got the ballot order, it could have been missing a zero. How that zero got dropped we have no idea.''

Baray defended his office, saying that the ballot printer notifies each county of the number of ballots being printed for each precinct.

"Somebody in Bernalillo County should have checked the numbers,'' Baray said.

Minnesota

Everything going smoothly, lawyers for both parties say. The AP reports a minor glitch at one polling place in Minneapolis today, after someone spilled coffee on a voting machine.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer says coffee was spilled on the optical scanner of a voting machine at First Christian Church. That caused the machine to short out. Kiffmeyer says the spill did not hinder counting of votes. But election officials were told to stop serving coffee to voters.

Kentucky

Democrats say they're seeing a high turnout and technical glitches, such as people not knowing to press "next page."

The AP says that poll worker Jeffery Steitz, 42, of Louisville allegedly grabbed a voter by the neck after a dispute over the ballot, said Lt. Col. Carl Yates of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

The dispute started at about 9:30 a.m ET at a UAW hall serving as a polling place in south Louisville. The voter told Steitz he did not want to vote in a judicial election because he didn't know enough about the candidates, Yates said. Steitz told Miller he had to vote in the race, Yates said.

The dispute escalated with Steitz grabbing Miller by the neck and throwing him out of the polling place, Yates said.

New Hampshire

Everything going smoothly, say lawyers for both parties.

Connecticut

Republicans say "smooth sailing" while state elections office says "there have been lots" of mechanical glitches.

New York

Election officials report that Saratoga County had long lines because of machine malfunctions.

Lawyers for the Democratic Party report that in Long Island there have been systematic challenges to female and hispanic voters challenging their citizenship and making them swear oaths of their U.S. citizenship.  Poll watchers dispatched on site have been defending voters, the Democrats say.

Illinois

There were widespread delays in getting Kane County polling places opened and electronic voting machines up and running, which prompted State's Attorney John Barsanti to seek a court order extending voting hours until 9:30 p.m.

A hearing on the motion in Kane County Circuit Court was expected to be held as soon as possible this afternoon, Barsanti said, in order for notification to be sent to the precincts.

As of midday, Barsanti said he had been unable to determine the extent of the delays. He has asked that polls remain open after the scheduled 7 p.m. closing in all of Kane County's 223 precincts. Some polls were down for an hour and a half.

Colorado

A judge has rejected Democratic lawyers' request for a voting extension.

Iowa

Ballot reading machines in Butler County were misreading ballots marked for a straight ticket vote, such as a vote for exclusively Republican candidates, election officials said.

Florida

Lawyers on both sides reporting no major problems.