I just got off the phone with Steve Young, the Democratic candidate in CA-48 (Orange County). He reports that his office is receiving calls from at least 8 precincts of voting machines down with no paper ballots available for voters. All, he says, in strongly Democratic areas of the otherwise conservative Orange County. I believe they use ES&S voting machines down there. Several Emailers have contacted us to let us know it’s Hart Intercivic machines in use down there, not ES&S.
He says voters were either being turned away without being able to vote at all, or voting on Chinese and Vietnamese paper ballots — since English ones are not available — just so they are able to vote!
By the time we were done with the call, a staffer came in with a report from machines down in a Republican area, but said the machines were fixed quickly, whereas one of the reports you’ll see below (transcribed during our quick phone conversation) shows poll workers repeatedly trying to get help from the Registrar to no avail.
Calls coming in to our office, 8 reports all in highly Democratic precincts…
8:35am – Two precincts in an elementary school (#59100 and #59102) had no machines working, no paper ballots, at least 15 people were seen leaving the polls without voting.
8:40am – All machines down in polling place with two precincts in it (#’s 59058 & 5916) all machines down, no English paper ballots, people voted on Chinese and Vietnamese ballots just to vote!
9:10am – Same precincts and also #59161 is completely out of paper ballots.
9:30am – Another precinct (I didn’t get the number) had two of the machines down, line is out the door (at least 40 people reported to be in line)
Within the hour – Prcts #59075 and 59076, machines down, poll workers tried six times to get attention to fix the machines.
We’re in contact with the Registrar, they promise they’re going to deliver English paper ballots to all of the precincts. They claim they are telling poll workers that folks should vote on paper and that they don’t have to vote on the machine….if there are such ballots available of course.
Please note, a memo from the CA Sec. of State last month had said all voters who wished to vote on paper in California may do so, but he left it up to them how many would be “an adequate supply.” He also said they should be counted as “normal ballots” and not as provisional ballots which are usually counted days later, if ever. None of those orders seems to be being enforced anywhere in CA, as far as I can tell.
I blogged about my experience voting in Garden Grove. No paper ballots available. The poll worker tried to tell me that the printer on the voting machine counted as a paper ballot. 3 of 8 machines down. People leaving without confirming their paper record (no worries, the poll workers were able to jump in and save the day on that one).
Oy.
“no English paper ballots, people voted on Chinese and Vietnamese ballots just to vote!”
I bet it was the Republicans who forced all those foreign languages on the ballots.
(Maybe if there were only English ballots that would not have happened… not that it would help the overall alarming situation.)
Sufficiently forewarned,.. but the warning was ignored.
The polling place that had no English or Spanish ballots available was where I voted today. I think the quote of “two voting machines down, 40 people in line” is from my call-in report, too, and it’s also in Precinct 59161. This is on campus at UC Irvine, by the way, and it’s the polling place for all of the graduate student housing and some of the professors/staff housing.
One more of the voting machines went down while the guy in line behind me was voting on it. It was a mess there, and the volunteers had no idea what to do. A couple of them were out talking to the line of people, trying to prepare them for the situation inside since it was really hard to actually vote.
People I’ve talked to later in the day are saying that it’s been an hour plus wait to vote, and there are still no ballots.
I should clarify, maybe:
Early in the day, all the machines were down at the UCI polling place on Los Trancos Drive. The poll workers said they were down for two hours; when I got there at 9:30 AM, only two were still non-operational. A third broke down while I was inside voting.
People I talked to who voted after noon reported no paper ballots, two of the machines still down, and wait times in excess of an hour.
You’re right, this is the Democratic enclave in what is otherwise an extremely conservative county. Most of the people I talked to in line (there was plenty of time for discussion) thought that this probably wasn’t a coincidence.
“You’re right, this is the Democratic enclave in what is otherwise an extremely conservative county. Most of the people I talked to in line (there was plenty of time for discussion) thought that this probably wasn’t a coincidence.”
Could be left-wing incompetence, too?
I am having no luck at all trying to stream the Peter Collins/Brad Friedman radio marathon broadcast!! I’ve tried all the Listen Live & other links I could find to no avail. BooHoo! And I take it there’s no companion thread for the broadcast? *sigh*
Well I have a question: is it illegal to photograph or videotape your own voting experience? And/or is it illegal to have/use a camera at all in your voting place?
My daughter & I both had our digital cameras out & on as we went to the machines to vote (wanting to be ready to document if anything went wrong) and a poll worker told us it was against the law to bring in a camera. We asked why & he gave the non-answer that he didn’t make the rules, he was just advising us that it was illegal. We tried to question him further, asking why it would be illegal to document your own vote, but he backed away repeating what he’d already said.
She did record our exchange with him.
Anyone know if it’s in fact illegal? I don’t see how it could be but I haven’t researched it yet.
Maybe…but our Secretary of State is a Republican. The OC registrar of voters is a non-partisan political appointee (as far as I know), so I don’t know his political persuasion.
#7, if you can document your own vote you’re open to vote-buying and threats.
Uh, Random Rightie, what the hell are you doing here? You’ve already finished rigging the election, so shouldn’t you be off raping little kids, torturing innocent grandparents, buying a third yacht with your war profits, or whatever else it might be that righties do?
We know you think that 9/11, New Orleans, HAVA, and everything else that happened on Bush’s watch is Bill Clinton’s fault. Can’t be Bush’s fault because he’s a rightie, right? A totem of economic prudence, diplomacy, efficiency, and the brilliant intellect of everyone on the right. Since you all inherited wealth, none of you ever worked a day in your lives, and you don’t pay taxes, could you at least go back to wasting our hard-earned tax money instead of annoying us here?
Yell Fire
Random Rightie is not being awful… no commenter bashing guys. This is about our CONSTITUTION, our COUNTRY. Just drop the partisan hatreds here for tonight.
If someone comes in stumping for the permanent loss of our BILL OF RIGHTS, then bash the living snot out of him or her.
Otherwise… let’s not get vicious.
And maybe we could move this to the open thread?
#10, you’ll want to (1) see my opinions about DRE machines in other threads and (2) stop your delusional generalizations about rightwingers.