WASHINGTON -- Election errors are mounting as Nov. 6 approaches, with Maryland reporting that nearly 300 residents who thought that they had registered to vote actually had not because of a computer glitch, according to The Washington Post.
Some voters who registered online did not get their registrations correctly processed by the state voter registration system and thus didn't get voter registration cards in the mail. Because these new voters' files were fixed after the registration deadline, they will have to use provisional ballots if they turn up on Nov. 6 to vote.
"It seems like it lessens my vote ... it sort of seems like disenfranchisement,” Seth Marcusa, on active duty with the Navy, told the newspaper.
Here are more examples of recent electoral problems reported across the country:
-- In Montgomery County, Texas, local Democratic officials have gotten complaints from several voters claiming that poll workers asked them for identification on top of their voter registration cards, reports The Courier of Montgomery County. Texas has no voter ID law in place. Griffin Winkworth, 22, was voting early on Monday when a poll worker stopped him and asked to see his ID. "I was the only person in line she stopped and did that to," he told the newspaper. "I feel she only stopped me because I'm young."
-- According to a new Christian Science Monitor analysis, touch-screen electronic voting machines in four swing states could put at risk the accuracy of the results because there won't be complete paper records to verify that the final results match the ballots voters cast. The newspaper said Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and Colorado are states with inadequate protections. "No matter how unlikely it seems now, there's a chance that this election will be so close that it could be flipped by a single voting machine problem in a single place in any one of those states," Princeton professor Edward Felten told the Monitor.
-- In Cumberland County, N.C., voters are being warned that the touch-screen voting machines are sensitive and that they should ensure that they properly press the right candidate on their electronic ballot, according to the Fayetteville Observer. The local board of elections is putting up signs at early-voting sites to remind voters to review their selections before pressing the "confirm" button on the machine. Two voters earlier this week complained that voting machine screens indicated that the Democratic Party and Barack Obama had been selected, even though they said they pressed a straight-Republican ticket.
-- In Texas, the North Texas Tea Party emailed supporters on Thursday warning that it had received four "specific, reliable reports" of voters claiming that they had tried to vote a straight-Republican ticket, but the machines had instead selected all Democrats, according to the Dallas Observer. The email said "(t)his problem COULD be limited to Dallas County (who replaced the longtime elections administrator with a Democrat lackey), but one cannot be sure" and said there could be "a misinformation effort to drive down GOP straight voting in Dallas County, where Democrat control is at risk." The Dallas County elections administrator said she received a single complaint about this issue, but the error was fixed and that there were no problems with the voting machines.
-- In Spartanburg County, S.C., 840 voters were accidentally placed in the wrong state House or state Senate district, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. That means that some voters who requested absentee ballots may have received ballots that contain the wrong candidate listed for races for the state House or Senate. Officials blame the mistake on recent redistricting changes and said voters who believe they received an incorrect ballot should contact Spartanburg County.
-- And in Oceanside, Calif., Patch.com reports that a campaign sign said it was paid for by the "Committee to Elect Terry Johnson Mayer Oceanside 2012," instead of "Mayor."
Before You Go
