Glitches, Problems and Irregularities, Oh, My

Obama Won, But that Doesn't Fix Our Broken Electoral System

Jim Cirile Byon 11/4/2008, 8:44pm PT

Guest blogged by Jim Cirile

Live from Brad Blog Election Center in North Hollywood, CA, we pause from election updates to bring you these reports of election irregularities, oddities and irritations coming in from all over our great nation. We haven't vetted these, so don't shoot the messenger. Or as the Bard (that's Bard, not Brad) once said, "Hey, I don't make the freaking news, I just blab it to youse." When the dust has cleared and the euphoria of the election has subsided, we'll still have to address deal with the dirty tricks and voter suppression and... yes, the machines...

Hat tip to Emily from VelvetRevolution.us for sending these along.

Vermont--BlackBoxVoting.org reports: Ballots are not supposed to be printed with the oval on the fold line. Maryland may read them fine because the oval is not on the fold. In Vermont, the Obama oval is at the fold.

South Carolina--we've received reports of GOP poll watchers harassing voters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fE25V5POmk

Pennsylvania--From TheHill.com, Obama supporters calling Repubs to tell them poll location changed. http://thehill.com/campa...midation-2008-11-04.html

Louisiana--Text messages apparently going around New Orleans asking Obama voters to vote on Wednesday http://vatul.net/blog/index.php/1964/

Iowa--Republican Party leaders in Poweshiek County want election officials to toss the votes of 50 Grinnell College students who listed the general campus address on their absentee ballots instead of their own campus addresses. The complaints, filed Monday, allege that the college mailing address doesn’t match the students’ campus addresses. Each Grinnell College student is assigned a post office box. http://www.desmoinesregi...#038;theme=CAMPAIGN_2008 Hat tip to John Gideon for this one.

Florida--The center of voting controversy in 2000, Palm Beach, Florida is back in the news with their 2008 confusing ballot. As Kerry Sanders demonstrated on MSNBC, the ballot is not a simple check box or fill in the dot like most of Florida ballots. Rather, Palm Beach voters have to color in a space to complete an arrow. If they check a box or circle the arrow, their vote is not necessarily counted. He pointed out the lawyers watching the vote tabulation as the confusion set in. http://www.huffingtonpos...ot-confusi_n_141176.html

California--KNX 1070 is receiving multiple reports of voting problems in the San

Fernando Valley. Voting machines and ballots are missing in polling places in Granada Hills. KNX1070's Desmond Shaw says police have arrived at a Granada Hills polling place at Woodley and Devonshire, where there are reports voting machines were stolen. Shaw reports the Ink-A-Vote mechanism is missing, not the actual paper ballots. The Los Angeles County Registrar's office says they are investigating the problems. Shaw says the delays have caused approximately 75 people to leave the polling place without voting. http://www.knx1070.com/V...ms-in-the-Valley/3254548

Elsewhere, voters in Stevenson Ranch are reporting computer voting problems. There is speculation this is due to rain-caused power outages.



