Ballot machine malfunction delays voters in Fond du Lac

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Journal Sentinel

A ballot machine malfunction in Fond du Lac delayed voters for a short time early this afternoon, in one of the six recall elections drawing strong turnout of electors in Wisconsin.

Ballots cast during the temporary shutdown in Fond du Lac were placed in an auxiliary bin, then scanned through a new machine when it was delivered about 12:30 p.m., said City Clerk Sue Strands. No voters were turned away, although some may have left instead of waiting in line, she said.

All of the ballots were counted.



Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/127308863.html

---

Probably nothing but my pulse quickens reading the headline

[izquierdista]

1. Must have been water....

Electronic machinery doesn't work too well when it is at the Fond du Lac. Lost a cell phone like that once......

[liberal N proud]

2. I am suspicious of these things

They should have spares they can move around to trouble spots. There is no reason for this crap.

[LiberalFighter]

3. This wouldn't be any different when there is an increase of voters.

The issue of concern is the reliability of the machines.

And when there is a problem there should be a fail-safe procedure to ensure that everyone gets to vote between incidents of this type. The positive for the machines compared to years in the past is they are easier to transport compared to the mechanical lever machines. It would had taken longer to deliver them compared to new ones. The negatives I leave to others.

[AndyTiedye]

4. No Problem. They Rushed in a Replacement Machine

[Plucketeer]

5. I DO NOT understand the fascination with these things!

What the hell's wrong with paper ballots and multiple sets of eyes???

[awoke_in_2003]

6. you can't hack paper. nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Not as easily as code anyway.

[Riftaxe]

8. Awesome, I will notify the secret service

that they can reallocate all the assets they use to investigate counterfeiting.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. Yes, ballots can be counterfeited...

but it is not terribly easy to smuggle a paper ballot into a voting area. The ones I have seen in the past were pretty good sized, and cannot be easily concealed in the pocket.

[CBHagman]

11. Unfortunately, in 2000 the state of Florida...

...proved that paper ballots are subject to interpretation and error, and can result in over a month's unadulterated hell. See dimpled chad, hanging chad, pregnant chad and overvote.

Until 2000, I never imagined there could multiple standards for reading a ballot.

[melm00se]

15. human error

I used to work election nights doing data entry at a computer center that consolidated all the results from our county's elections (pre-internet days) and the number of errors that crept into the system, even with multiple eyes and ears.

These machines look just like the ones my county uses in NC: take the ballot, mark it, stick it in, it gets scanned and the paper ballot is sucked into the secured bin. you get the best of both worlds: paper ballots with the speed and efficiency of an optical reader.

[valerief]

10. A new FIXED machine, for sure. nt

[alp227]

13. Looked up the WI senate districts, Fond du Lac is in D-18, where a Democrat won

Jessica King.

[valerief]

14. Well, as long as a Dem won. nt

[russspeakeasy]

12. Here we go again.....

:wtf: :nuke: