# Voting Problems - and so it begins...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 4, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087 "2008-11-04T17:33:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/1 "2008-11-04T17:33:02Z")
From [The New Republic](http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/11/04/trouble-in-the-commonwealth.aspx):
> [@](#):
>
> It appears Virginia’s electoral debacle is upon is.
>
> The vigilant folks here at Election Protection headquarters are telling us that large numbers of Virginia voters have been turned away from the polls this morning. Several precincts opened late and quickly had ballot shortages. At some, not all the machines were working; at others, none of them were working. The group’s legal volunteers are learning more by the minute as calls come in from voters–so take this all with a grain of salt for now–but word here is that more than a dozen precincts have been experiencing serious problems in the Commonwealth. The number of voters affected, according to a group spokesman, is “significant.”
>
> More than a thousand frustrated Virginians have called to complain this morning. One widely reported blunder: Workers at some of the state’s malfunctioning precincts have been giving cleanly registered voters provisional ballots instead of paper ballots, most likely because they ran out of the paper ones. (Provisional ballots are meant for voters whose eligibility has been called into question.) “Over the last hour, we’re continuing to get these problems in Virginia,” says Jon Greenbaum, the coalition’s legal director. And then there’s this, from a Rock the Vote rep: The polling precinct for Virginia Tech students in Blacksburg was moved to a church that sits on an unmarked road six miles off campus. Better carpool, Hokies.
>
> The problems in Virginia should come as no surprise. The swing state added half a million voters to the rolls since '04, and the legal tussling was already underway in Richmond before this morning. Claiming the state wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of voters, the NAACP had requested last week that polling hours be extended, more paper ballots be issued, and polling machinery be moved between precincts as necessary. A federal judge denied that request yesterday.
PA and FL are running into problems, too… ☹ :mad:
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/2 "2008-11-04T17:38:49Z")
“so take this all with a grain of salt for now” is journalist speak for “this crap is completely unsubstantiated and I just wanted to throw it out there.”
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### Author:  [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/3 "2008-11-04T17:40:04Z")
We had a tiny problem this morning at my precinct.
The votes here are paper ballots on what looks like a Scan-Tron form. They’re filled out in ink, though, which does not dry immediately. The lady in front of me was voting straight-ticket Republican but the ink had smudged so that the machine thought she had filled in two bubbles for straight-party. After much staring and jabbing buttons, the election volunteer finally pushed the “ACCEPT” button.
It seemed odd to me that the woman would not be given a fresh ballot. My own went through without a problem, but how was hers counted? Did she somehow get to vote for Democrats AND Republicans? Did her vote get counted at all? Did her vote get set aside to be manually counted? It went into the same machine, so I rather doubt that…
Sigh. Even though she’s voting against my candidates, I don’t want her votes to get trashed. I don’t want poorly-trained election officials mucking this up. ☹
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### Author:  [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/4 "2008-11-04T17:58:10Z")
Virginia voter here and all was relatively calm in my precinct, though it did take the election officials ~20 minutes to figure out what to do about my daughter, who’s name was misspelled (one letter missing) in the voter rolls.
Haven’t heard any complaints from folks around me who’ve been taking off to vote.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/5 "2008-11-04T18:08:16Z")
I’ve worked election duty for a few elections, and this always happens. In a country with millions of voters, there are going to be screw ups. The people running things at the polls are, by and large, volunteers (and not well trained ones at that). Some of the machinery can, and will, break down. And votes that should be counted, won’t be, and those that shouldn’t will be.
To expect anything less is just silly. It’s a matter of minimizing the problems, not eliminating them. And with the divisiveness of the campaigning (and the problems in 2000), there will be a great many legal struggles. And, no matter the result, the losing candidate’s supporters will be convinced that the other guy stole the election.
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/6 "2008-11-04T18:11:36Z")
SO much of this is overblown BS, IMO.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/7 "2008-11-04T18:14:31Z")
> [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](#):
>
> We had a tiny problem this morning at my precinct.
>
> The votes here are paper ballots on what looks like a Scan-Tron form. They’re filled out in ink, though, which does not dry immediately. The lady in front of me was voting straight-ticket Republican but the ink had smudged so that the machine thought she had filled in two bubbles for straight-party. After much staring and jabbing buttons, the election volunteer finally pushed the “ACCEPT” button.
>
> It seemed odd to me that the woman would not be given a fresh ballot. My own went through without a problem, but how was hers counted? Did she somehow get to vote for Democrats AND Republicans? Did her vote get counted at all? Did her vote get set aside to be manually counted? It went into the same machine, so I rather doubt that…
>
> Sigh. Even though she’s voting against my candidates, I don’t want her votes to get trashed. I don’t want poorly-trained election officials mucking this up. ☹
are they using fountain pens? I marked my optical scan ballot with a ball-point, no smudge problems with that.
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### Author:  [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/8 "2008-11-04T18:20:00Z")
You guys have had _four years_ to get this organised ☹
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### Author:  [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/9 "2008-11-04T18:25:00Z")
> [@Great\_Dave](#):
>
> are they using fountain pens? I marked my optical scan ballot with a ball-point, no smudge problems with that.
Looked like regular ball-point to me, but all she did was fill in the straight-party-ticket bubble and turn it in, so it could be that the five seconds that took did not give the ink time to dry. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/10 "2008-11-04T18:27:08Z")
> [@George\_Kaplin](#):
>
> You guys have had _four years_ to get this organised ☹
Well yeah, but we weren’t sure until recently whether 90% of the election volunteers would even be alive today, what with their average age being somewhere in the triple digits. So I’m sure that took a bit of time to organize.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/11 "2008-11-04T18:27:40Z")
eta: wrong forum for me
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/12 "2008-11-04T18:30:46Z")
> [@George\_Kaplin](#):
>
> You guys have had _four years_ to get this organised ☹
Closer to 200, actually. 😃
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/13 "2008-11-04T18:30:48Z")
I had to go to three booths to get a pen that had ink _in_ it.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/14 "2008-11-04T18:35:19Z")
The voters hot line that tracks the election problems has had 27,000 phone calls so far. Typical election run by a combination of incompetents and thieves.
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/15 "2008-11-04T18:35:27Z")
> [@George\_Kaplin](#):
>
> You guys have had _four years_ to get this organised ☹
Or to look at it another way, the opposition has had four years to put its obstacles in place.
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### Author:  [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/16 "2008-11-04T18:39:26Z")
Just saw something about how the Palm Beach county ballot was all fucked up again this year.
But on the other side of the equation. If you’re not smart enough to figure out a fucking ballot, maybe you don’ t need to be voting. There are instructions in the goddamned booth and they dumb it down to the highest possible degree.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/17 "2008-11-04T18:42:43Z")
America needs to be castrated. Florida, being America’s penis, should be cut off and shoved out to sea. It’s completely flaccid at this point, provides no joy nor function, and all the Viagra on all the shelves in all the retirement communities cannot bring it back to life.
And while we’re at it, let’s remove the prostate gland that is Ohio. It’s swollen and cancerous and has to go.
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### Author:  [@ShadiRoxan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadiRoxan)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/18 "2008-11-04T18:47:16Z")
Another Virginia voter. No problems that I noted when I went in.
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### Author:  [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/19 "2008-11-04T18:48:34Z")
> [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](#):
>
> We had a tiny problem this morning at my precinct.
>
> The votes here are paper ballots on what looks like a Scan-Tron form. They’re filled out in ink, though, which does not dry immediately. The lady in front of me was voting straight-ticket Republican but the ink had smudged so that the machine thought she had filled in two bubbles for straight-party. After much staring and jabbing buttons, the election volunteer finally pushed the “ACCEPT” button.
>
> It seemed odd to me that the woman would not be given a fresh ballot. My own went through without a problem, but how was hers counted? Did she somehow get to vote for Democrats AND Republicans? Did her vote get counted at all? Did her vote get set aside to be manually counted? It went into the same machine, so I rather doubt that…
>
> Sigh. Even though she’s voting against my candidates, I don’t want her votes to get trashed. I don’t want poorly-trained election officials mucking this up. ☹
Waaaaaaait! You could see what was on her form? I assume the election volunteer could as well because she was putting the ballot into the Scantron, correct?
Man, if you so much as fold your paper wrong in Canada your vote is discarded. It’s a BIG no-no for anyone to see your vote, especially an election volunteer.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-problems-and-so-it-begins/471087/20 "2008-11-04T18:50:58Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> America needs to be castrated. Florida, being America’s penis, should be cut off and shoved out to sea. It’s completely flaccid at this point, provides no joy nor function, and all the Viagra on all the shelves in all the retirement communities cannot bring it back to life.
>
> And while we’re at it, let’s remove the prostate gland that is Ohio. It’s swollen and cancerous and has to go.
As a healthy-bonered Florida resident, I disagree.
At least we’re attached. You’re, like, America’s tonsils.
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