Moby
01-21-2008, 08:38 AM
80% to 90% failed in one district. I wonder how that district was going to vote and why that one district had such a high rate of failure.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/321152.html
By Aliana Ramos and Claudia Lauer - The Sun News
You can't vote here.
That's the message some Horry County voters got as they were turned away at the polls, as 80 percent to 90 percent of the machines failed to function for the Republican presidential primary. Precincts that switched to paper ballots soon ran out.
George Ruff and his wife were not able to vote when they went to their precinct in Myrtle Trace in Conway Saturday. They learned the machines had been down since 7 a.m. and were not expected to be working for the rest of the day.
"They also shared that they had requested additional paper ballots twice today already - only to be given a few paper ballots - not enough for all came to vote," he shared via e-mail. "Not a good day in Horry County or for the state of South Carolina and a 'sad' day for the democratic process."
In addition to not being able to vote, machines in some precincts held up election results because they would not allow poll workers to print out results to properly close down.
Horry was the only county in the state to have these problems with its machines. Horry County's 118 precincts are about 5 percent of the state's precincts.
In Georgetown County, elections ran smoothly, said Donna Mahn, director of elections and voter registration.
The reason the machines failed is unknown. Efforts to reach manufacturer Election Systems & Software, based in Omaha, Neb., were unsuccessful.
The State Elections Commission, Horry County Registration & Elections and the manufacturer will investigate why the Horry machines failed.
They will have less than a week to figure out what went wrong before the scheduled Democratic presidential primary on Saturday.
State Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, who campaigns for Sen. John McCain, said he was furious.
The county has had voting problems in every election, Edge said.
He called for the firing of Sandy Martin, the director of the Horry County election office.
"I don't even know where to begin. I'm stunned that this happened, and even more stunned by what happened this afternoon," Edge said.
Calls to Martin were not returned.
Edge said he was bombarded with calls from people who vote in North Myrtle Beach and other precincts in his district. Some places had no paper ballots, in violation of the law, and were using pieces of blank paper.
Edge said he contacted a circuit court judge to get an extra hour of voting, and the judge was going to grant it as long as an election official signed an affidavit.
But Deborah Johnson, chairwoman of the election commission, refused.
About 80 percent of the precincts were affected, but only one or two machines at any precinct had problems, according to a statement released by the county, and most problems with the machines were resolved by about 4 p.m.
In some cases voters hoping to cast their ballots in Horry Saturday were turned away at the polls and told to come back later. Some precincts resorted to paper ballots, and when those ran out, workers and residents improvised, using construction paper and whatever other scraps of paper they could find in order to cast their votes.
The S.C. Election Commission attributed the problem with the machines to human error because workers forgot to reset the machines after they were tested.
But Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier says the problem may be more complicated.
Bourcier said the voting machines were reset after they were tested before Saturday, but "for some reason" still needed to be reset on the GOP primary day.
"We don't know if weather played a role and if the machines were left in people's car overnight," Bourcier said. "Nobody wants to know what happened more than we do. But right now we're focusing on getting everything fixed."
All paper ballots, included those that were improvised, were hand counted by about 50 volunteers at the election office in Conway, Bourcier said.
"When they keep showing the national maps, it's a reflection on the county, so we are trying to expedite the process and get the results in quickly because this really is a reflection on how the rest of the country sees us," said Carol Coleman, deputy director of planning and zoning, who abandoned dinner with friends to help. "More than a work duty, this is a civic duty."
The machines were implemented in Horry for the first time in November 2006.
State election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said there was nothing wrong with the system or its software.
"It's a human error of procedure not being followed correctly that led to the situation today," he said.
The machines won't allow votes to occur if they have not been reset after the test, he said.
If the machines don't work, he said, the poll managers should give people backup paper ballots, the fail-safe ballots and pieces of paper, even a paper towel if necessary, to vote on.
"No voter should ever be turned away," Whitmire said. "That's a training issue."
But in some cases there weren't any paper ballots.
David MacKenzie went to the Garden City Beach Precinct 2 and heard they had used all of their paper ballots by 11 a.m.
He came back after noon and asked if he could make any copies. He took the oversized ballot, shrunk it down to legal size and made 100 copies. Soon after, 100 more were delivered by the election office.
Precincts are supposed to have enough paper ballots for 10 percent of their registered voters, and fail-safe ballots for 5 percent. That is to allow time when the machines are to be fixed or someone is fetching more ballots. If there are no more ballots, poll managers have the power to go out and buy notebook paper or anything necessary to allow people to vote, Whitmire said.
Before every election, workers cast test votes on the machine to be sure the machines work properly.
The final step in this process is to perform a "clear and test" that resets the test votes recorded on the machine to zero. Without performing this measure, the voting system will not allow machines to be opened for voting on election day, Whitmire said.
Richie Spencer went to vote at the Crescent Beach precinct at about 11:30 a.m and was handed a paper ballot because the machines weren't working. But he was more distressed about the writing implements.
"They gave me a pencil and said it would be fine," said Spencer, 38. "It was just strange to me that [the ballot] said as plain as day that you should use blue or black ink."
"It's really bad that we as a county and Myrtle Beach as a city have forked out all this money and time and effort for these debates, and somebody couldn't work out to reset these machines," he said.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/321152.html
By Aliana Ramos and Claudia Lauer - The Sun News
You can't vote here.
That's the message some Horry County voters got as they were turned away at the polls, as 80 percent to 90 percent of the machines failed to function for the Republican presidential primary. Precincts that switched to paper ballots soon ran out.
George Ruff and his wife were not able to vote when they went to their precinct in Myrtle Trace in Conway Saturday. They learned the machines had been down since 7 a.m. and were not expected to be working for the rest of the day.
"They also shared that they had requested additional paper ballots twice today already - only to be given a few paper ballots - not enough for all came to vote," he shared via e-mail. "Not a good day in Horry County or for the state of South Carolina and a 'sad' day for the democratic process."
In addition to not being able to vote, machines in some precincts held up election results because they would not allow poll workers to print out results to properly close down.
Horry was the only county in the state to have these problems with its machines. Horry County's 118 precincts are about 5 percent of the state's precincts.
In Georgetown County, elections ran smoothly, said Donna Mahn, director of elections and voter registration.
The reason the machines failed is unknown. Efforts to reach manufacturer Election Systems & Software, based in Omaha, Neb., were unsuccessful.
The State Elections Commission, Horry County Registration & Elections and the manufacturer will investigate why the Horry machines failed.
They will have less than a week to figure out what went wrong before the scheduled Democratic presidential primary on Saturday.
State Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, who campaigns for Sen. John McCain, said he was furious.
The county has had voting problems in every election, Edge said.
He called for the firing of Sandy Martin, the director of the Horry County election office.
"I don't even know where to begin. I'm stunned that this happened, and even more stunned by what happened this afternoon," Edge said.
Calls to Martin were not returned.
Edge said he was bombarded with calls from people who vote in North Myrtle Beach and other precincts in his district. Some places had no paper ballots, in violation of the law, and were using pieces of blank paper.
Edge said he contacted a circuit court judge to get an extra hour of voting, and the judge was going to grant it as long as an election official signed an affidavit.
But Deborah Johnson, chairwoman of the election commission, refused.
About 80 percent of the precincts were affected, but only one or two machines at any precinct had problems, according to a statement released by the county, and most problems with the machines were resolved by about 4 p.m.
In some cases voters hoping to cast their ballots in Horry Saturday were turned away at the polls and told to come back later. Some precincts resorted to paper ballots, and when those ran out, workers and residents improvised, using construction paper and whatever other scraps of paper they could find in order to cast their votes.
The S.C. Election Commission attributed the problem with the machines to human error because workers forgot to reset the machines after they were tested.
But Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier says the problem may be more complicated.
Bourcier said the voting machines were reset after they were tested before Saturday, but "for some reason" still needed to be reset on the GOP primary day.
"We don't know if weather played a role and if the machines were left in people's car overnight," Bourcier said. "Nobody wants to know what happened more than we do. But right now we're focusing on getting everything fixed."
All paper ballots, included those that were improvised, were hand counted by about 50 volunteers at the election office in Conway, Bourcier said.
"When they keep showing the national maps, it's a reflection on the county, so we are trying to expedite the process and get the results in quickly because this really is a reflection on how the rest of the country sees us," said Carol Coleman, deputy director of planning and zoning, who abandoned dinner with friends to help. "More than a work duty, this is a civic duty."
The machines were implemented in Horry for the first time in November 2006.
State election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said there was nothing wrong with the system or its software.
"It's a human error of procedure not being followed correctly that led to the situation today," he said.
The machines won't allow votes to occur if they have not been reset after the test, he said.
If the machines don't work, he said, the poll managers should give people backup paper ballots, the fail-safe ballots and pieces of paper, even a paper towel if necessary, to vote on.
"No voter should ever be turned away," Whitmire said. "That's a training issue."
But in some cases there weren't any paper ballots.
David MacKenzie went to the Garden City Beach Precinct 2 and heard they had used all of their paper ballots by 11 a.m.
He came back after noon and asked if he could make any copies. He took the oversized ballot, shrunk it down to legal size and made 100 copies. Soon after, 100 more were delivered by the election office.
Precincts are supposed to have enough paper ballots for 10 percent of their registered voters, and fail-safe ballots for 5 percent. That is to allow time when the machines are to be fixed or someone is fetching more ballots. If there are no more ballots, poll managers have the power to go out and buy notebook paper or anything necessary to allow people to vote, Whitmire said.
Before every election, workers cast test votes on the machine to be sure the machines work properly.
The final step in this process is to perform a "clear and test" that resets the test votes recorded on the machine to zero. Without performing this measure, the voting system will not allow machines to be opened for voting on election day, Whitmire said.
Richie Spencer went to vote at the Crescent Beach precinct at about 11:30 a.m and was handed a paper ballot because the machines weren't working. But he was more distressed about the writing implements.
"They gave me a pencil and said it would be fine," said Spencer, 38. "It was just strange to me that [the ballot] said as plain as day that you should use blue or black ink."
"It's really bad that we as a county and Myrtle Beach as a city have forked out all this money and time and effort for these debates, and somebody couldn't work out to reset these machines," he said.