Nine States May Have Voting Machine Problems

Monday, November 06 2006 @ 11:23 AM EST

Project Vote Releases Briefings on Anticipated Election Day Problems

PV via BBSNews 2006-11-06 -– On the eve of Election Day, two Project Vote reports describe anticipated election problems in 33 jurisdictions in nine states. One report, on voting machines, identifies the machines to be used in each jurisdiction and problems associated with them. The second pinpoints likely problems based on recent election management history and any currently known issues. The states are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Both reports, as well as accompanying fact sheets, are available at www.projectvote.org.

Errors in voting machine programming contribute to potentially serious obstacles to free and fair elections, according to "Anticipating Voting Machine Problems in Nine States." The document identifies the manufacturer and model of voting machines used in 33 jurisdiction in nine states, and provides an overview of voting machines and their historic problems from the four major manufacturers: Election Systems & Software; Sequoia Voting Systems; Diebold Election Systems; and Hart InterCivic.

Voter intimidation, poorly trained poll workers, and defective equipment are just some of the serious issues detailed in "Projected Election Day Problems in the 2006 General Election: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania." The selected jurisdictions - all in states with closely contested elections - show a host of other problems that may prevent Americans from casting a ballot for candidates of their choice.

• Voters in Arizona, Ohio and Missouri should be aware that late-changing identification requirements might lead to confusion by poll workers and conflicting implementation of ID requirements across the state.
• Voters from minority communities in Arizona, Michigan and Maryland should be aware of recent or planned attempts to aggressively challenge their eligibility as voters.
• Voters in Colorado (Denver), Maryland (Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince George's County) and Ohio (Cuyahoga, Franklin, Summit, and Hamilton) should be prepared for inadequate or poorly trained poll workers, which may result in long lines, a denial to vote a regular ballot or the failure to be offered a provisional ballot.
• Florida (Duval County), Pennsylvania (Alleghany and Philadelphia Counties) and New Jersey (Essex County) voters should be alert to last-minute, unannounced, polling location changes.

Voters in all nine states should be alert to misleading communications regarding their polling place and the date and time of the election.

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