Apparently the electronic voting machines are not working in many parts of Montgomery County. I know definitely that Sligo Creek Elementary School and East Silver Spring Elementary School machines were down this morning. At Sligo Creek they weren't even offering provisional balloting until precinct chair Mitch Warren insisted. At East Silver Spring, they are offering provisional ballots but only allowing 1 person to vote at a time, which means people are leaving because the line is too long; some people were told to go home at both locations. At Sligo Creek machines did come up just before 8AM, not sure about East Silver Spring. Lawyers for the Democratic Central Committee as well as the Washington Post have been notified. This is Robert Lanza's [a local paper ballot activist from TrueVoteMD] nightmare coming true... -Lane, Silver Spring

My wife and I arrived at our voting place at Temple Emanuel in Kensington at 7:30, only to be told that the "cards" for the machines hadn't been delivered yet. Somehow Election Day snuck up on the people who are supposed to be in charge? We left without voting, as did many others. We hope that matters will be fixed by this evening, although this latest snafu should make for some very long lines. Oy. Welcome to Florida/Ohio/ Iraq. -Martin, Kensington

And I heard of another story in Silver Spring where a woman was signed in but could not get a provisional ballot completed before she had to leave for work. Because she already signed in she will likely not be allowed to vote this evening and be yet another disenfranchised voter.

I'm not sure how primary day is going acroos the state but here in MC things are totally FUBARed.

So much for technology when organization is lacking.........

And on top of it all....turnout has been TERRIBLE thus far. Call your family and friends and urge them to vote in this important primary. In spite of the problems, most polls do have some machines working so far. But this does not bode well for the General Election in 8 weeks.

UPDATE: Still having sporadic problems with the sign in terminals. This is seperate from the Diebold voting machines. These terminals are the new way for you to get signed in, as opposed to the old book and card system. The problem is three terminals are available but only ONE has a printer. A printout receipt is required for the sign in. (Yet not for recording your votes!!!!)

So basically only one terminal at each voting place is functional. This makes the sign in process slow if there are any number of people. There hasn't been any lines at my polling place because turnout is awful. But I fear the evening rush will produce long lines. There have been a few people who have left before voting when there have been incidents of terminal problems...seems like they've had to reboot or something a few times.

The reason for there being only one printer is the rest of the printers are on a ship somewhere and they did not arrive. My question is why didn't they stick to the old method with the books and cards????

The lack of printers I've been told is a State Board of Elections Issue. The missing voter access cards for the Diebold machines was a County Board of Elections Issue. The whole thing is one big mess. Thankfully some people are continuing onward and voting in spite of the issues.

Thanks for all the comments and recommends....I'm floored. Will try to read through them all later. Gotta get back to my poll so I can continue to record any more issues I hear about.

UPDATE 2: Polls will be open until 9 pm. HOWEVER .....the Diebold machines will be shutdown at 8 pm. All ballots cast after 8 pm will be provisional (paper) ballots. This is supposed to be in case anyone challenges the polls staying open late. We'll see what happens......