Technical problem forces 28 Norfolk voters to use paper, not computer ballots
01:47 PM EST on Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Reported by: Doug Aronson
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It seems the city's new, computerized ballots didn't work for a short time at Azalea Gardens Middle School.
These computerized ballots at Azalea Garden Middle School didn't work for a short time.
The touch pad machines are designed to make quick business of ballot counting and make voting simpler. But there was a technical glitch, so some voters had to cast their ballots the old-fashioned way, using a pencil and paper to select their candidates, then putting their paper ballot into a make-shift emergency ballot box.
Voting officials told 13News that 28 people had to vote on paper rather than on computer. Kathryn Jennings was one of them.
"I don't know how secure it is in that box," she said. "I don't know how official my ballot is because it was literally is a Xeroxed piece of 8" x 11" paper that I use in school." Election officials told 13News all the paper ballots are legal.
"Those paper ballots will be counted at the end of the day and added to the tapes on the machines," confirmed Ed O'Neal with the Norfolk Electoral Board.
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Stay with 13News and WVEC.com for election results.
http://www.wvec.com/news/local/wvec_local_110403_election_voting_machine_screw_up.1a7bffe4.htmlVoting machines criticized by scientists
By CHRISTINA NUCKOLS, The Virginian-Pilot
© August 18, 2003
RICHMOND -- The touch-screen voting machines purchased by Norfolk last year put the city on the cusp of election technology, but the $1.2 million computer system is now under attack from computer scientists across the country.
A report by Johns Hopkins University computer scientists earlier this month said AccuVote touch screen computers, made by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems and used in 200 cities and counties in 13 states, are vulnerable to tampering.
Norfolk is the only locality in Virginia using the Diebold machines, but computer scientists say they have similar concerns about the security of other brands of electronic voting equipment.
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