Readers of this blog might want to consider the major malfunctioning of the voting machines in Ohio in yesterday’s primary. It is only going to get worse in the fall. Here’s a breakdown of some of the day’s problems from the Columbus Dispatch and the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Cuyahoga (used Diebold machines)
– court-ordered extension of voting hours, requested by Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, because they didn’t open until 1:30pm. Ordered to stay open until 9:30pm.
– poll workers could not get new Diebold touchscreen machines to work in Cleveland housing project
– some people had to vote on paper ballots

Franklin County (used ES&S machines)
– Matt Damschroder, Franklin County BOE Director, claimed 50 people walked away without voting (according to Columbus Dispatch)
– ballots loaded without school levies included
– 20% (160 precincts) opened late
– ES&S placed a dozen company representatives on the ground
– voters complained about the open viewing of voting machine screen and lack of a curtain
– Worthington, Westerville and Hilliard – voters complained locals school levy issue was not on voting machines

Delaware County (ES&S machines)
– some machines did not work at all
– paper jams were biggest problem (according to Janet Brenneman, deputy director of Delaware County BOE)

Union County (ES&S machines)
– audio voting prompts were issued on machines at inappropriate times

Here’s another list, courtesy of John Gideon and Brad Friedman at http://www.bradblog.com

OH: Belmont County – Train Wreck – Vote-Counting Process Mired
 
OH: Cuyahoga County – Train Wreck – Ohio’s largest county still counting votes
 
OH: Cuyahoga County – Train Wreck – People, machines account for glitches in Cuyahoga voting (Diebold)
 
OH: Cuyahoga County – Train Wreck – Countdown to chaos
 
OH: Hamilton County – Train Wreck – Voting total takes 6-1/2 hours. Human problem holds up Hamilton Co. count
 
OH: Mahoning Valley Counties – Train Wreck – Problems slowed the process of getting voting results (ES&S and possibly other vendors)
 
DIEBOLD DISASTER: Cuyahoga County Still Counting as 70 Memory Cards Missing from 200 Precincts
50 Temp Workers Hired to Count Absentee Ballots which Diebold Machines Fail to Scan Properly…

DIEBOLD DISASTER: Company Gets ‘F’ From Election Board Chairman as Machines Fail All Over Cuyahoga County, OH on Primary Day
Voting Machines Refuse to Power Up, No Paper Ballot Backups, 17,000 Absentee Ballots Must be Counted by Hand

E-VOTE MELTDOWN: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
Man Smashes Diebold Touch-Screen Voting System in Ohio!
Arrested at Polling Place During Today’s Ohio Primary Election

CLEVELAND – A 61-year-old man was arrested after an alleged poll rage incident, NewsChannel5 reported. Officials said the man was arrested after breaking a voting machine. He faces disorderly conduct, obstructing official business and resisting arrest charges.  It took several people to restrain the man who was trying to vote at a 4330 Jennings Road. It’s unclear what caused the man to become upset. The report didn’t specify, but the machine in question, and in the photos, was a Diebold AccuVote TSx (touch-screen) system. Look, people, those machines don’t work anyway! Even when they’re not smashed! Apparently the man damaged at least two of the Diebold voting machines.

5 replies
  1. 48thRonin
    48thRonin says:

    Can’t anybody see the writing on the wall in November? Why don’t they just make Blackwell the governor now? He probably already knows the percentage by which he will win….

  2. J. Robinson
    J. Robinson says:

    I live in Mahoning County (Youngstown) and we had the same problems. This is straight from our news paper…

    Poll workers in Youngstown, Struthers and Campbell were incorrectly trained last month about how to close polls on the new equipment, said Thomas McCabe, Mahoning elections board director.

    When the training error was discovered, poll workers were given the correct information but not brought in for retraining, he said.

    Poll workers in about 25 to 30 precincts, primarily but not only in Youngstown, Struthers and Campbell, had trouble closing the machines, McCabe said.

    Also, because of a delivery issue with the machines, many poll workers were trained without the new equipment, said Mark Munroe, the board’s vice chairman.

  3. Jody
    Jody says:

    I repeatedly hear news reports of “memory cards” missing. Originally it was over 70, and today it is still around 10.
    We need to frame this issue correctly. Those are “ballot boxes” that are missing. A memory card is a depository of voted ballots.
    This referral to “memory cards” instead of “electronic ballot boxes” is another way of framing the issue as just a mere technicality with electronic voting machines.
    I am sure that the public’s reaction to missing “ballot boxes” would be much more reactive than to missing “memory cards”.
    This is similar to the repeated use of the word “glitch” to cloak the repeated failures, defects, discrpancies, malfunctions that are inherent in any electronic forms of conducting elections.
    All these framing words are designed to minimize the impact or problems with these unreliable, inaccurate, and insecure machines.

  4. peacechicken
    peacechicken says:

    Would you advocate voting absentee since the electronic machines are still so sketchy? I got a request form in the mail that I can send back for an absentee voting form and it seems like it’d be a much better idea. Not that I like trusting my vote to the US Postal Service, but I’d rather them have it than Diebold…

    Please let me know, thanks!!

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