Poll Workers Struggle With Vote Machines

Poll Workers Struggle With Vote Machines: “Poll Workers Struggle With Vote Machines
– By ANICK JESDANUN, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, November 7, 2006

(11-07) 11:52 PST , (AP) —
Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts Tuesday, delaying voters in several states and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead.
In Virginia, state election officials called in the FBI after several voters complained about getting phone messages that sent them to the wrong precincts.
Many of the voting machine problems surfaced as the polls were opening.
In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn’t get to start properly.
‘We got five machines — one of them’s got to work,’ said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.
In Indiana’s Marion County, electronic optical-scan machines that read paper ballots initially weren’t working right in more than 100 precincts. Poll workers had trouble using a computer port to connect those machines to new touchscreen models, which handicapped voters use, County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler said.
Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., and Lebanon County, Pa., extended polling hours because of early machine troubles blamed on bad programming.
In Colorado, Democratic Party officials said they would ask a state judge to keep Denver polling places open an extra two hours Tuesday because of long lines. Power failures in the area had knocked out laptops used to verify voter registration, forcing workers to call the central office for information.
Jonah Goldman of the La”