|
Boulder uses printed poll books examined by hand. We have
paper ballot, and they should be examined by hand as well. Paul Tiger -----Original
Message----- Begin forwarded message:
From: "Bruce McNaughton" <bjmcn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: November 8, 2006 10:38:36 PM MST To: "CFVI General Distribution List" <cfvi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [CFVI] A Denver
Vote Center, Election Day 2006
For decades, Denver voters went to 400-plus local precinct polling
places to cast their votes on Election Day. Election Day 2006 saw the
precinct system replaced with 55 "Vote Centers". The old Park Hill neighborhoods in northeast Denver have
consistently turned out eighty and ninety percent of their eligible citizens to
vote in elections. Fifteen or twenty minutes is what people looked forward
to in order to carry out the basic transaction of democracy in their friendly precinct polling
places. No one was prepared for what happened on November 7, 2006. What follows is the report of a volunteer poll watcher for
Fair Vote Colorado www.fairvotecolorado.org
at the Park Hill Methodist Church Vote Center on Election Day 2006. ... I arrived at the Park Hill Methodist Church Vote Center shortly
after polls had opened. The person who happened to be last in line when I
arrived would cast her vote forty-five minutes later. Waiting times only
got worse as the day went on. The twenty-four electronic voting machines in the
gym often sat empty during the day as poll workers struggled with the new
electronic regis- tration system -- four laptop computers to be used in place
of the old printed paper pollbooks. The computer-based poll book system went down a total of five
times at the Park Hill center. A supervisor told me that at least three
of those crashes were system-wide, affecting all 55 Denver voting centers. Total
down-time, said the supervisor, was between two and a half to three hours. The
first shutdown occ- urred a little after 7:30 am, and caused many people hoping to
vote on their way to work, to leave. Pete Maysmith of Common Cause drove around to Denver's northeast
centers and reported estimated waiting times back by cell phone, which
information was much appreciated by voters looking at hour and a half
wait-times after the first computer downtime ended at 8:15am. A second, shorter, computer failure occurred at around eleven
o'clock, when the lunch crowd was starting to lengthen the wait to two hours.
Again, many people left without voting -- this having been the second attempt
for some. Noticing the "Problems voting?" lettering on my yellow FairVote
t-shirt, the most common comment throughout the day -- from people who'd stuck out the
waits in line and the people who'd left frustrated, went something like:
"Whose decision was it to do these 'Vote Centers'? It took me about fifteen
minutes to vote in my old precinct, without all the parking hassle. We need to go back to local
precinct voting. This is a [adjective] disaster." Just after the second computer crash, it was discovered that
there were no more provisional ballots to give people who had waited in line only to
be told that they wouldn't be allowed to vote on the machines for one reason or
another. I was told by the Park Hill supervisor that election
judges went without provisional ballots for "at least three hours" despite repeated
calls to the election commis- sion. Turns out many vote centers had the same
problem. Provisional ballot provider, Sequoia Voting Systems Inc, hadn't anticipated such a
large turnout, it was claimed. But the Park Hill center ran out of
provisional ballots only a third of the way through the day. Around the time of the third computer crash,
rumors circulated that there was a court injunction being sought to keep the polls open 'til nine pm,
to make up for time lost on computer problems. Voters waiting in line
were increasingly vocal with their opinions about the Voting Center concept, and many
doubted that keep- ing the polls open an extra two hours would make up for the people
put off by the long lines. Around three in the afternoon word came that the legal move to
keep the polls open 'til nine had failed. At about the same time a
call was spread for emergency volunteer poll judges. I drove across town to the
Election Commission offices to volunteer. I waited in a line comprised of
volunteers, emergency registration applicants, election judges hoping to score a supply of
provisional ballots, and others. After forty minutes, a man came into the lobby and
said the Election Commission had filled their emergency poll judge requirements, no
more app- lications would be accepted. I drove back across town. Arriving back at the Park Hill Vote Center after five pm, I
saw the longest line of the day snaking out the lobby doors and wrapping around two
sides of the church complex -- a line that would mean three hour waits for
voters. Work and appoint- ments behind them for the day, Denver voters settled in line for
the wait. Terms like 'deliberate vote suppression', 'disenfranchisement', and
'third-world election- rigging tactics' were common in the earnest discussions
carried on as the chill of night set in. Sodas, bottled water, pizza and other snacks were distributed by a
campaign or party unnamed, producing a kind of party atmosphere. A
troubador from Love- land, hearing of Denver's long lines, came to the Park Hill center
to sing and play for the appreciative voters. What could have been the most
grueling hours of Elec- tion Day 2006 were actually fun and uplifting. The last voter left the Park Hill voting center at 9:44 pm, saying
"Can you imagine what this would have been like if this were a presidential
election year? We can't ever let this happen again." Submitted by, Bruce McNaughton FairVote Colorado volunteer, Nov. 2006 Denver CO |