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CO-GOV: Voting Problems Plague Denver
The Denver Post reports:
Election day in Denver began with long lines, as computer problems appeared to make it difficult for workers at vote centers to check registrations against the master list.By 8 a.m., lines stretched up to a city block at places like the Colorado Convention Center, Corona Presbyterian Church and Denver Botanic Gardens.
At the Convention Center, though 100 people stood in line, only 25 percent of the voting machines were in use at any given time, as poll workers tried to get verification of voter registration from computers that were frequently down.
Dejected downtown workers attempting to vote before work could be seen walking away from the polls as the line barely moved.
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Just like in 2004, the urban voting districts are getting screwed...First Allegheny County(Pittsburgh) and now this. This is the last tool the Rebulicans and Diebold have to suppress the more democratic votes...simply amazing!
November 7, 2006 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is anybody surprised by this? Just wait, . . . "Katherine Harris pulls shocking upset . . . !"
November 7, 2006 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cuyahoga again in OH, as well.
November 7, 2006 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, Die(abolical)bold's major role starts later in the day. At what point do you think we will see the Dems stand up to this stuff? Will control of the House be enough for them to take a stand, or do they need the Senate too? Maybe they should wait until they retake the oval office and hold both chambers. But does it really matter; as long as there are only two party's, being #2 in America is still pretty lucrative. What’s a populist to do?
November 7, 2006 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I voted in Denver on Friday and there were long lines in the main central polling place on Colfax avenue (waited over 1 1/2 hours in a line about 200 long). It may be that Colorado simply doesn't have enough polling places or machines.
But, the holdup is two-fold. Too few machines (there were only 12 machines) and only 4 volunteers were checking identities. Checking identities was the real holdup and that has nothing to do with the actual voting machines themselves.
I voted in the past on Capital Hill in central Denver and there was NEVER anymore than about a 30 minute wait.
So, this has nothing to do with Diebold. The machines themselves were brand new ones with a printed ballot as well as the electronic one, so that you could check to make sure your vote was accurately recorded. The screen even informs you if you failed to make a selection and you can go back several screens and change your ballot. Everything appeared to work right. But, the machines seem to need constant attention from poll workers for some reason. I'm not sure why.
I don't see any possibility of fraud. If there were, the paper ballot would catch it.
Also, as far as Democrats are concerned long lines just aren't going to make a difference. Aside from ballot initiatives like the two competing gay-marriage intitiatives and marijuana decriminalization there are no hotly contested local races and there's no Senate race this year. Denver is a blue county so I don't believe it's deliberate suppression like we see in Missouri and Ohio.
Statewide Gov. Bill Ritter (elect) is going to win by at least 10 points, that race is a runaway and and Rep. (D) Diane Degette doesn't even have a Republican opponent) so suppressing the vote out of Denver county wouldn't help Republicans that much this year. So, frankly, if there are too few voting machines I'd rather they were put in CO-04 and CO-07 this year, where there are actually competitive races and that horrible harridan (R) Musgrave might finally be thrown out!
Still we will need to get the computer glitches fixed by 2008!
November 7, 2006 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Still we will need to get the computer glitches fixed by 2008!
No, this is not an application that's suited to an electronic solution. Paper ballots work fine. But this is a nightmare software application that runs infrequently and at very high volumes. You can't test in such a way that simulates the application's actual use. High volume applications (think ATM software or slot machines) are okay because they operate at high volume continuously. Any bugs are rapidly revealed and fixed. But in this case, it's as if you only ran the casino once every two years. You get slammed for 8 to 12 hours every two years.
It's very difficult to design and develop software that operates infrequently and handles a high volume of transactions.
Now you'd think that this is a pretty easy application to write--you can represent the entire business problem on one (fairly large) piece of paper. But the combination of computerized registration information with computerized voting in high volume environments with a requirement for perfect accuracy. The environment consists of users who have been minimally trained and are often technophobic or at least inexperienced with computer technology.
Traditional voting machines (which are just paper ballots) have none of these problems. The scanning machines should be a solved problem (but apparently not in Ohio) because of their use in other applications, although I still prefer a paper ballot, accompanied by a printed report of voters in a precinct. That's how it works in my polling place, and there's never been a problem.
November 7, 2006 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dworking wrote: "Also, as far as Democrats are concerned long lines just aren't going to make a difference."
Frankly, that's just not true. The Denver-Boulder area is a Democratic stronghold in the state and while it may not threaten Ritter in the Governor's race it could alter the races for Secretary of State and Attorney General, plus give the conservatives the upper hand in the 14 ballot initiatives.
The Secretary of State's office is important and candidate Ken Gordon is the best choice to work toward free and fair elections in 2008. Losing that office to the Republicans could cost us big in 2008. Senator Ken Salazar used the Attorney General's office as a step toward winning his Senate seat, so it is also demonstrably an important office for the Dems to pick up.
Suppression of Demcratic votes might also end up defeating Referendum I and its promise of basic legal rights for same sex couples and may also defeat the minimum wage amendment to keep the working poor from earning a living wage.
In any case, suppression of votes whether deliberate or the result of poor planning and ineptitude is completely unacceptable and should in no way be glossed over as no big deal.
November 7, 2006 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink