Voter advocacy groups report electronic glitches statewide

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006

Poll monitors and lawyers in Maryland reported statewide problems with the electronic voting machines today, indicating that the machines sometimes failed to select the candidate the voter picked for U.S. senator or governor.

According to three voter advocacy groups — the Maryland Democratic Voter Empowerment program, the Election Protection Hotline and True Vote Maryland — Prince George’s, Montgomery and several other counties are reporting the glitch.

But the most reports have been received from Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. They groups said the problem was reported primarily by Democratic voters in those counties, where most voters are registered as Democrats.

The problems arose when voters selected the Democratic candidates, most notably gubernatorial challenger Martin O’Malley and U.S. Senate candidate Ben Cardin. But the summary page on the computer screens showed the Republican candidates, Gov. Robert Ehlrich, Jr. and U.S. Senate candidate Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, were selected, the voter advocates said.

Voters had to go back and re-select their candidates.

In some cases, the ballots had only one available check box, which was for the Republican candidate, meaning a voter could not select a Democrat or a third-party candidate. In some cases, resetting the machines took care of the problem. In others, the voters used paper ballots.

There were not reports of Republican picks being switched to Democratic picks, the groups said.

The problem raises concerns about the integrity of the machines, but some voter advocates say it could just be a computer glitch.

‘‘Chances are, most of these problems are a malfunction,” said Shazia Anwar, executive director of True Vote Maryland, a non-partisan voter advocacy group. ‘‘I’m not saying it was intentional or unintentional. But one thing is certain: Voters are getting confused and possibly disenfranchised.”

The groups are reporting these glitches elsewhere in Frederick, Harford and Easton counties, as well as Baltimore City.

Karren Pope-Onwukwe, a lawyer and poll captain with the Maryland Democratic Voter Empowerment program, said some of the voters may not have caught the error in time.

‘‘My concern is the integrity of the machine,” said Pope-Onwukwe, who lost in the Dist. 22 House of Delegates primary race. ‘‘How many cast their ballots and didn’t notice? For folks to be inconvenienced like this is ridiculous.”

Diebold, manufacturers of the machines, said whatever the problems, they had nothing to do with partisanship because it would have been noticed across the ballot and on multiple screens.

‘‘In no way is this isolated to a certain race or party,” said Jessica Goon, spokeswoman for Diebold. ‘‘The issue with the screens would be across the ballots. It certainly wouldn’t be isolated to the Democratic Party.”

Goon said the glitch was likely voter error, as a voter may have brushed up against a machine or accidentally hit the wrong box. Goon said most of the local election boards were not reporting widespread errors.

There were several 800 numbers voters can call to report issues. One hotline was operated by several civil rights groups, including the NAACP. Along with the screen glitch, many voters were complaining about long lines.

Some wait times were up to two hours and could have been due to malfunctioning polling machines, said Rob Randhava with the Election Protection Hotline.

‘‘It’s clear turnout is high in a lot of places, but we’ve gotten calls that the machines weren’t up and running in time and in a few places they were out of order for hours,” Randhava said.

Pope-Onwukwe said she has received complaints that some election chiefs are continuing to use malfunctioning machines instead of taking them out of service.