E-voting problems reported as election gets under way

Reports of problems with electronic voting technology cropped up across the country Tuesday, including the key states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, as millions of U.S. citizens flooded polling places for the country's presidential election.

Reports of malfunctioning machines, ill-trained poll workers and an inadequate supply of voting terminals were some of the problems reported to state election officials and to a host of groups monitoring the election.

The Verified Voting Foundation logged more than 500 reports of problems with electronic voting machines as of 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and more reports were expected from the western U.S., according to Will Doherty, executive director of the foundation.

Reports of problems were evenly spread across states leaning either toward Democratic challenger John Kerry or Republican President George Bush, as well as in states that could go either way, Doherty said from Arlington, Virginia, where Verified Voting set up an "election protection nerve center" that fielded more than 50,000 calls by mid-day Tuesday.

In Philadelphia, rumors spread quickly that electronic voting machines were showing vote totals before the start of counting on Tuesday, prompting state Republican party officials to cry foul and threaten litigation. Those reports were false because observers misinterpreted an odometer-style vote counter that records all votes cast on each machine and is not reset for each election, said Kenneth Rapp, deputy secretary for regulatory programs for Pennsylvania.

However, at least four polling places in Philadelphia reported malfunctioning of older voting machines from Danaher Controls Inc., Doherty said.

In Columbus, Ohio, overcharged batteries on Danaher Controls ELECTronic 1242 systems kept machines from booting up properly at the beginning of the day. Election workers quickly resolved the problem and those systems were brought online. No polling place had to suspend voting because of the problem, said Jeff La Rue, a spokesman for the Franklin County Board of Elections.

In Louisiana, state election officials received about 200 complaints of problems with machines, including two confirmed reports of Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machines in New Orleans Parish that were not working, according to Scott Madere, press secretary for the Louisiana Secretary of State. New Orleans has about 800 electronic voting machines in use, he said.

Additional problems with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) iVotronic machines occurred in Louisiana after officials improperly formatted ballots so that systems labeled nonprovisional ballots as provisional, and vice versa, he said. Provisional ballots are being given to voters whose registration is found to be in doubt when they go to vote.

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