Electronic system beset by problemsBalloting glitches frustrate voters By Timothy B. Wheeler and Melissa Harris September 13, 2006 Maryland’s first statewide run of an all-electronic voting system stumbled out of the gate yesterday, with major glitches in Baltimore City and Montgomery County that frustrated thousands of would-be voters and forced election officials in those two localities to hold polls open an extra hour. The snafus, which also cropped up to lesser degrees in other counties, were so severe that they produced a flurry of finger-pointing between Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates and promised to become an issue in the final two months of the campaign. Delays in counting votes also left the contests for U.S. Senate and state comptroller – the outcome of which would determine whether incumbent William Donald Schaefer’s storied career would come to an end – unsettled early this morning even as supporters gathered at hotels and restaurants anticipating celebrations. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. wasted no time after learning that voters in two of the state’s largest jurisdictions were having trouble voting before setting up a toll-free hot line in his office so he could compile complaints. “We’re going to demand answers,” he said. The Maryland Democratic Party and its nominee for governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, instead laid the blame at the feet of Ehrlich’s nominees to boards of election around the state who manage elections county-by-county. “We rely on our governor to make sure elections are administered in an orderly way,” O’Malley said. Other Democrats were even less subtle in faulting Ehrlich. “He can’t run an election just like he can’t run the state,” Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who lost to Ehrlich in 2002, told a reporter from WMAR-TV while leaving her polling place in Baltimore County. Democratic Party spokesman David Paulson blamed delays in opening polls in Baltimore and some other jurisdictions on many Republican poll judges not showing up. Election officials said recruiting poll workers is a constant challenge, especially GOP workers in heavily Democratic precincts, but the problem seemed worse this year. In Baltimore, voters turning out early found locked doors and absent workers at polling places from Highlandtown to Mount Washington. Those workers who did report for duty on time struggled with a balky new electronic voter list, which at times erroneously declared a voter had already cast a ballot. It was unclear how many voters were turned away, or gave up when faced with long lines and computer glitches. In Montgomery County, the problems and voting delays were even more widespread, as election workers failed to distribute ATM-type “access cards” needed to activate the touch-screen voting machines. It took up to three hours to get the necessary cards distributed. Meanwhile, some polling places ran out of the small stock of paper “provisional” ballots they had been letting voters mark up manually as a backup. With Democratic candidates and party officials complaining of voters being disenfranchised, red-faced Montgomery election officials obtained a Circuit Court order by early afternoon allowing them to extend balloting until 9 p.m. The glitches drew cries of anguish and anger from candidates, especially in the city and Montgomery County, which together account for 27 percent of the state’s registered voters. “It’s shocking, the level of incompetence, that this could happen in Montgomery County in the 21st century,” said Douglas F. Gansler, the Montgomery state’s attorney, who won the Democratic primary for attorney general last night. “The question is whether people are being disenfranchised, and some are. ... People died for the right to vote, and they didn’t have the cards for the machines?” Nancy Dacek, appointed by Ehrlich to run the Montgomery County Board of Elections apologized to voters inconvenienced by her staff’s failure to distribute election workers’ access cards, but called it “a fluke.” The city’s election board initially balked at a request for extended hours from Democratic Party officials and Stuart O. Simms, who lost to Gansler in the primary for attorney general. Election officials said city polling problems did not appear to have significantly hurt the morning turnout. But by late afternoon, city election officials agreed to extend voting after the state Democratic Party and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a voting-rights group, went to city Circuit Court seeking a judicial order requiring polling places stay open an extra hour. The delays and glitches left many voters fuming. “I arrived at 7 and waited because the doors were closed,” said Mark Neustadt, a marketing consultant who lives in Charles Village. “I returned at 9:45 a.m. and the polling place still wasn’t open. So I called the State Board of Elections. “They told me to go to another polling place and cast a provisional ballot. The nice poll worker there said, ‘Gee, I’m sorry but we’re short-staffed and haven’t been able to set up provisional balloting.’ I can’t tell you how it feels to try to vote and be unable to vote.” Pat Chalk of Wyman Park in Baltimore went to vote yesterday morning at a retirement home in Hampden only to find out – to her surprise – that according to the computer system she had already voted. “They were so disorganized,” she said. “I said, ‘Forget it, I’m not voting’ and I walked out.” In Baltimore County, problems also cropped up, though not as extensively. At Ridge Ruxton School on Charles Street in Towson, election workers said they had to turn away more than a dozen voters because of problems turning on the voting machines, , chief judge Barbara Kramer said. Voters were told to fill out provisional ballots instead, but the precinct ran out of Democratic ballots by 9:30 a.m. and Republican ballots an hour later, Kramer said. Additional ballots – as well as the keys to the machines – did not arrive until 12:45 p.m., after at least 15 people were turned away, Kramer said. “We begged them to come back later,” Kramer said, adding that many did. Howard County also experienced problems with more than 50 electronic poll books – the computerized voting check-in system – when voting began at 7 a.m., according to Betty Nordaas, county election administrator. “They were a little bit shaky for a time,” she said, referring to a variety of technical glitches that forced some polling places to give paper provisional ballots to some early voters. She said all problems were resolved by lunchtime. The extra hour of balloting last night in Baltimore City and Montgomery County did not appear to bring a surge of late voters. At one precinct at South Baltimore Learning Center, a total of four voters arrived after 8 p.m. and were taken aback to be handed paper provisional ballots. “I’m used to going into a private booth and pulling that curtain, not having to sit at a table with six other people [watching],” said Doug Canham, a Democratic voter from Federal Hill. He said he worked a double shift at a garden store in Lutherville and appreciated the opportunity to vote, though not in this form. Election officlals pointed out that state law requires use of provisional ballots in cases of late voting. Those votes are not slated to be counted until Monday – after absentee ballots, but before overseas absentees. More than 41,000 absentee ballots were requested. That’s nearly twice as many as were cast four years ago, due to changes in state law that made it easier for voters to get them. Election officials’ unfamiliarity with the new system also may have figured in the slow pace of vote counting in some jurisdictions last night. In Prince George’s County, election director Robert J. Antonetti Sr. said that it was taking additional time to report the county’s results online because of changes to the computer software that gathers votes from the precincts. “The counting is going smoothly, but we’re having a few formatting problems getting it on the Internet,” he said. Ehrlich, whose toll-free hot line (1-800-811-8336) is to collect complaints, said he would forward them to Linda H. Lamone, the state elections administrator, and demand answers. “There should never be a question about election results in 2006 in the state of Maryland,” he said. O’Malley, who ran unopposed for governor on the Democratic ballot, laid the problems at the feet of local election boards – which he pointed out are made up of Ehrlich appointees. O’Malley said local boards had failed to plan for the election or train personnel adequately. “The boards locally are appointed by the governor, and it’s their responsibility to secure judges and make sure the election goes smoothly,” he said. Politicians and some electoral experts had been arguing heatedly over changes to Maryland’s election systems, with Republicans, led by Ehrlich, warning of the potential for problems, especially vote fraud. Disputes over “early voting,” which the General Assembly passed over Ehrlich’s veto only to have a court block it last month, tended to overshadow the other major chagnes to the state’s method of electing its leaders. This election is the first in which the entire state is using the same Diebold electronic voting equipment. A new, statewide voter registration database also debuted, as did the electronic check-in machines. State election administrators defended the electronic system, saying the problems appeared to stem from breakdowns in local oversight of the balloting process. “The failure of the local election boards in Baltimore City and Montgomer County to properly manage today’s primary election is inexcusable,” said Donna Duncan, director of election management for the Maryland State Board of Elections. “The failure of Montgomery County to deliver voter access cards created massive confusion. Even more disturbing is the failure of the Baltimore City election board to fully staff many polling places and open them on time.” Others said the voting problems appeared to stem from a combination of human and electronic errors. Paul Herrnson, professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, said yesterday’s bumpy voting “demonstrates that there’s no substitute for capable election administration. “And second,” he said, “it shows that the ability of voters and poll workers to use the voting machines is just as important as voting security.” Baltimore’s voting delays exposed a nationwide problem recruiting enough competent poll workers, election experts said. “Like many states, Maryland has a problem recruiting people to serve as election workers, and there is a definite need to recruit younger, more computer savvy and perhaps more reliable election workers,” Herrnson said. Poll workers in Baltimore are paid $20 to attend training and up to $150 to work for 14 hours or longer on Election Day. State law requires a Republican and Democratic election judge in every precinct, but several polling places opened in Baltimore today without a Republican judge. Tim.wheeler@baltsun.com Melissa.harris@baltsun.com Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun |
