Those Zany Voting Machines

By Jenny Shank, 11-07-06

On the PBS News Hour Tuesday evening, Denver was singled out as the location with the worst voting problems in the country. As the Denver Post reported, Denver polling places were rife with computer problems and many voters gave up, frustrated about the long lines. In 2004, Boulder County experienced major problems with its new voting system caused by a misprint that made computer scanners unable to read some ballots, prompting a hand recount. This year, I opted to vote by absentee ballot, while my husband went to the Mesa Vista polling place and experienced a minor technical glitch.

When my husband arrived at the polling place, an election worker asked him if he wanted to use a paper ballot or an electronic voting machine. He decided to go for the electronic machine, after making certain he'd receive a print out of his vote. The person in front of him in line said that the electronic machine was great and easy to use, but when he got to the machine, there was a message on the screen that said the printer was not functioning. The election officials offered him the option of waiting until they fixed the machine or voting by paper ballot, and he chose to go the old fashioned way.

I used to enjoy going to the polls on Election Day, but during the 2002 elections, I experienced a voting problem that caused me to switch to absentee ballot to avoid the hassle. That year, when I went inside the voting booth at my Denver polling place, the lights weren't turned on, and when I tried to enter my first vote, the indicator arrow next to the candidate's name wouldn't stay on when I pressed it. After a few tries I stepped out and tried to explain to a poll worker what happened. He started yelling at me: "Did you or did you not vote?" I tried to explain what happened. He kept asking me, "Did you or did you not vote?" I kept insisting that I hadn't pressed the submit button, and he turned around and announced to the crowd at large that once you pressed the submit button, you couldn't vote again. Finally, he went and turned the machine on and I was able to vote, but I didn't appreciate him scolding me publicly for a mistake that he'd made.

It seems that despite the calls for reform after the 2002 elections, it's still a crapshoot for some voters, with voting machines as individualized as the counties that use them.
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