Florida's Voting Glitches May Even Affect Paper Ballots

TALLAHASSSEE -- Voting glitches are cropping up across the state, including jammed optical scanners in some precincts in South Florida and Leon County, misprinted ballots in Hollywood, and waits as long as three hours at one precinct in Miami, voting rights advocates reported this morning.

Advocates could not say whether the problems were isolated or widespread.

"It's very difficult to say how vast this is," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause of Florida. "All we can see is a trend."

By 11 a.m., the group had fielded 1,257 calls on its 1-866-OUR-VOTE hot line, some of them describing voting-equipment problems at 32 different locations across the state.

They included optical scanners at precincts in Tallahassee and South Florida that were rejecting paper ballots.

Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho said the problem was cropping up in a few precincts in Tallahassee. Scanners were jamming, but only after the ballots had been scanned and reported, Sancho said. No votes were lost, he said.

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