Counties dealing with ballot problems

[Progressive4Life]

Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler blasted a voting machine company this morning saying it supplied error-filled ballots for next month's primary election.

Meanwhile, clerks in Johnson and Hancock counties, also are upset with the company because it did not deliver absentee ballots in time and failed to program touch screen voting machines.

Marion County's problem, Sadler said, is Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software did not print instructions on ballots for the non-partisan school board elections in Decatur and Washington townships. The error was caught Tuesday, the day after absentee voting began, and Sadler said it means two people are going to have to vote again.

"This particular problem seems now to be fixed and we got away with it only affecting two people," Sadler said during an emergency meeting of the Election Board this morning. "But given the history of the last two weeks, I'm afraid of what will crop up again."

More

[salin]

1. K & R

and suggest that if it isn't already that it this story gets cross posted to the election reform forum.

[hippiechick]

2. ... and on it goes ...

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060412/NEWS02/604120475


Election officials see trouble ahead
New ballot errors raise fears about May 2 voting

By Brendan O'Shaughnessy

A new round of mistakes in Marion County's primary ballots led voting officials to admit deep doubts Tuesday that the May 2 election could come off without problems. With the primary approaching and absentee voting already begun, the Marion County Election Board held its second emergency meeting in a week about the ongoing errors.

Board members chastised representatives of the company that is providing the computer files used to print the ballots. Election Systems & Software, the Nebraska company that provides the ballot files, discovered an error Monday that would make it impossible for counting machines to read the nonpartisan school board ballots. The company provides ballots for 27 Indiana counties, including Johnson, Marion and Hancock.

"This is the ninth round of fixes in this election," said Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler. "How can I be sure the partisan ballots, which are the bulk of the election, won't be affected?" Sadler said she was worried because efforts to fix one glitch led to new ones. Problems with missing instructions for two township school board elections sparked a first emergency meeting of the Election Board last week.

.... more at link ...

[salin]

3. the only good news, is that the local media

(thanks Speedway Dem, for hooking Wishtv into the issues in the last election) is following the stories, and making it conventional wisdom (aka "public awareness/belief") that there are serious problems. I think that our local media is raising awareness in a way that is quite unique to most areas in the country. The stories are not limited to one aspect - it is about the machines, it is about the voter purges per "inactive voters" and the problems with that system, and on it goes. Imagine if in the run up to the 2000 elections there had been this kind of coverage on a myriad over voter issues/potential serious problems with elections had been going on in a couple of major cities in Florida. How that drama played out would have been very, very different.

I am not one to ususally praise the Indiana media - but on this issue I am very pleased. Not just that an angle is being followed - but a number of issues are being pursued regularly, and by now on multiple media outlets... such that many, many people are growing more aware. If there are serious questions in May or in November - those will not be so easily cast aside as "fringe, sore loser sentiments" - because of the public awareness.

[hippiechick]

4. ... meanwhile, over at Rokita's office ...

Why the Fark did they still approve the machines, if they're aware of all the problems and are waiting to give a different vendor up to 30 citations ?!?!

Oh, wait ... lemme guess ... :eyes:

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/9069765/detail.html

State Official: Election Company May Have Violated Law
Second Company Wins Reprieve

UPDATED: 3:41 pm EDT April 28, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS -- Election-related problems in several Indiana counties is prompting the secretary of state to point fingers at an election vendor.
Secretary of State Todd Rokita said Friday that he has served notice to Election Systems and Software of 30 potential violations. The charges include providing defective voting systems and ballots, and installing uncertified equipment.
ES&S provides election equipment in 27 Indiana counties, but problems have been noted in three of them, including Marion and Johnson counties.

The company could face a total fine of $9 million. ES&S will have a chance to defend itself against the allegations in a hearing May 8, six days after the primary election. A top executive from ES&S apologized for Indiana's voting problems at a hearing last week.

Also Friday, a company that supplies voting systems to 47 counties won a temporary reprieve from state officials that will allow hundreds of thousands of Indiana residents to vote by machine instead of paper ballots in Tuesday's primary.

... more at link ...

[salin]

5. aka "We know there are problems... but we have an election

to run and couldn't imagine the headaches of so many areas doing hand counts - so we will just "approve" the software without really being sure it is okay - but it sure is a whole lot easier.

Or that is my interpretation.

[DrGonzoLives]

6. The primaries here have already been decided

Which means that the local elections will be decided, since Democrats win them anyway.

Except for the prosecutor's race, which features a rich ambulance-chasing scumbag against two qualified candidates in the primary who will lose, and no Republican alternative to vote for in the general election.