Virginia Voting: Broken Machines, No Paper Ballots

At the Math and Science Center in Richmond, Virginia, an early breakdown of electronic voting machines led to a three-and-a-half hour wait to vote on Tuesday morning, according to one poll watcher.

"Some people have been here since 6 a.m., and the first voters are just finishing now," said Judith Browne-Dianis, adding that the Richmond location she was watching did not even have backup paper ballots in case of machine malfunction.

"They didn't even have the paper ballots required by state law," she said. "That's not even something we were supposed to have to ask for. I went inside and asked the polling judge, and he said 'we don't have 'em. They [the Board of Elections] were supposed to give 'em to us, and they didn't.'"

Browne-Dianis is also a lawyer with the Advancement Project. That group, along with the NAACP, unsuccessfully brought legal action against Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as part of an effort to expand polling place hours this evening.

The groups had also hoped to get Virginia to provide more paper ballots for voters in case late evening lines proved prohibitive -- a request that was also rejected by a judge on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, though, Browne-Dianis said her group had succeeded in getting Virginia to announce that curbside voting will be in effect tonight for elderly and disabled voters. She also underlined the fact that anyone who lines up by 7pm will be able to vote, no matter how long the line takes to process.

As for her group's thwarted legal challenge, Browne-Dianis said the judge was sympathetic to the case during Monday's hearing. "He himself described waiting two and half hours, at age 85, to vote absentee. ... He said we need to go to the state legislature and get early voting, and that there is no remedy for voters for this election. And so we are monitoring the polls."

Comments

[BillMelater]

More republican shenanigans. These MFrs need to go to prison. Simply voting them out of office is not good enough. They are intentionally stomping all over people's voting rights. They need to be made an example of!

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[macracan]

I voted today in VA (betw 9:00 and 10:00). In northern Virginia, Fairfax County. No line whatsoever. They even gave me the option to vote either electronically or on paper. I chose on paper and it was much faster then the electronic machines. I was pleasantly surprised. If only the whole state (and country) voted this easily...

[jazzme1]

oh just a small sound bite. also last evening when mayor wilder of virginia mentioned that the NAACP had filed suit to extend the polling hours by three hours, (due to the obvious record turn out and clearly showing the LENGTH OF TIME people were having to wait to vote) and the circuit court judge DENIED their request. sooo, hey.. judgie who had denied these voters who may not be able to get to cast their vote due to NOW this debacle...SHAME ON YOU!!! YOU have denied citizens their RIGHT to vote. no matter how long it takes, they are entiled to cast their vote. SHAME ON YOU!!!!
(( i dont "suppose" it ocurred to the judge that since "he" waited two hours in line to vote, that "there maybe" longer wait times for others and perhaps it would behoove him to extend the polling hours...duh...))

[Rober]

Is it not possible for those who wait in line an inordinate amount of time to file a class action against the election commission seeking to recover lost wages? Laws are great, but sometimes financial loss has a much more lasting impact on institutional behavior.

[CIH8U2]

Come on now, your telling me that we can fly to the damm moon, create computers, build space stations, sattelites, yet they can't get a fu...king vote machine to work properly.
OH Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's done on purpose.

[Aroura]

Early voting should be instituted in all 50 states...period. The increasing population combined with no new funds for many polling places means some people won't get to vote in some places this year, period.
The judge is quite right, this needs to be fixed! Write to your legislature, do something, get early voting in your state.

[santamonica39]

the truth is we don't need early voting. There is NO reason why we can't have everyone vote on election day in an orderly and speedy manner. It's not HARD. It just takes will and financial resources. Those are the two things we apparently have in short supply when it comes to electing our government. We are the joke of the world. Canada and all of europe elect leaders and have one election day and they don't have any of these problems. And they use paper ballots!

[beanchihuahua]

Surprisingly, I had no problems voting and I live in the Hampton Roads area. I waited in line with my children for an hour and maybe 15 minutes.

[mlaiuppa]

No paper ballots. What a surprise.

Request denited. What a surprise.

Is there any question that this is voter suppression? Disenfranchisement? I hope all of the Obama supporters voted early and it's the Republicans that are now waiting in the long lines and being denied their vote. Sauce for the gander.

[SCVADem]

Unfortunately, we don't have "early voting". We have absentee, but you need to have a reason. I only hope lots of people thought they would be "out of town" today.

[Deus Angelus]

Why am I not surprised. After this election is done, there needs to be a Federal overhaul of the electoral process in this country. How is it that we're the only country that can't get it right?

We can order sex online and can't vote.

[springsm]

Well of course it is happening in Virginia...they think they have something to lose, win all they have to do is gain. Ya Virginia...the home of 7 presidents and they want to put out defective voting machines. Give these people paper ballots and let those ballots JOIN the rest of the paper ballots. My gawd. I didn't realize that fair voting was rocket science in this country.

[S-Jane]

What they had no idea that today was Election Day and had no gameplan for what to implement should there be a problem?

What a travesty.

[linzy]

If the ballots are defective and won't go in the machines, people should be allowed to get a clean, dry ballot from the pollworkers. STOP THIS DISENFRANCHISEMENT NOW! I must say that the touch screeen ballots used in Nevada do provide a paper trail so if there is any question at least there is some measure of control. We simply cannot allow the GOP to steal yet another election due to rigging the vote.

[fiorastar]

This is where the election theft for McCain begins. Anyone wanna guess how Richmond and Hampton Roads leans? That's right! Democratic. No problems reported in primarily Republican areas.

Wonder why McCain was acting so confident? He's got the world's greatest election theft machine behind him, pulling his puppet strings.

[RedneckDem]

Not sure about Richmond, but Hampton Roads does NOT lean towards the Dems. I live in the area and, while many cities will go Dem, the larger population centers like Virginia Beach and Chesapeake will go Repub. The military industrial complex is huge here and combined with several military bases will make it hard for Dems. They have their employees brainwashed to believe that Dems are bad for the military and that they will all lose their jobs. Evidence is lacking, but this scare tactic always works.

[smkyle1]

this is not surprising. The LA Progressive posted an open letter signed by Gore Vidal and others that talks about this kind of thing and what we can do.

http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/11/03/election-night-do-not-concede-an-open-letter-signed-by-gore-vidal-others-to-senator-obama-the-democratic-leadership/

[jazzme1]

oh 'cmon now...are we REEEAALLLLY surprised at virginia being this years ohio and florida combined? mayor wilder last evening mentioned he had spoken to the elections board and officials in richmond and stressed that their contigency plan needed to be addressed and looked at in the event of....??? and gee, they did not want to listen to him and continued to stress that, "we are ready for anything. yes we have a good contigency plan in place..." but hey, paper ballots? did they have the paper ballots in the event by either coincidence or convienence, the MACHINES broke down?

funny much how these, "machine break downs" are occuring in areas where they are having record turn out voting on both sides. detect a pattern here....much?

[rkimball]

at democratic precincts, long lines, few polling volunteers, broken machines & computer glitches.
at republican precincts short waits, many volunteers & no glitches.
this happens every elections.
the republicans rig it this way to frustrate democratic voters.
there needs to be an investigation.
if we are incapable of policing ourselves then maybe the iranians should police our elections for us.

[HurryUp1212009]

No, the new Attorney General in the Obama Administration needs to put a few of these Republican election cheaters behind bars!