RE: Voting fiasco in Montgomery County Maryland

["Young, Keith" <Keith.Young () montgomerycountymd gov>]

Yeah, my location that I set up was running at about 7:40, but my
engineers didn't have theirs going until later...
 
--Keith



Keith Young, Security Official
Department of Technology Services
Montgomery County, Maryland
phone - (240) 777-2955


        -----Original Message-----
        From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org
[mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Richard M. Smith
        Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:29 PM
        To: funsec () linuxbox org
        Subject: [funsec] Voting fiasco in Montgomery County Maryland
        
        
        From Slashdot.  Someone doesn't want some of the federal
government employees to vote......
         
        Richard
         
        
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR200609
1200535_pf.html
         
        Montgomery to Extend Voting Hours After Election Glitches
        County Polling Places to Stay Open Until 9 P.M.
        

        By Debbi Wilgoren and Miranda Spivack
        Washington Post Staff Writers
        Tuesday, September 12, 2006; 3:52 PM
        

        Polling stations in Montgomery County will remain open until 9
tonight--an hour later than usual--to accommodate voters who were turned
away from the polls this morning because of a glitch that left
computerized voting machines across the county inoperable.

        Circuit Court Judge Eric M. Johnson issued the order about 2
p.m., in response to a petition by the Montgomery County Board of
Elections.

        Boxes of automated voting cards that are required to work the
electronic machines were mistakenly left behind in a Rockville warehouse
in the run-up to Election Day, elections officials said.

        Early morning voters were forced to cast provisional,
hand-written ballots at Montgomery County's 238 polling places, while
election staffers scrambled to deliver the forgotten voting cards as
quickly as possible. Several precincts ran out of the paper ballots, and
workers from at least one precinct went to a copy shop to make more.
Some poll workers, according to witnesses, did not know the provisional
ballots were an option and told voters to try again later in the day.

        The cards began to be delivered shortly after 7 a.m. and had
been dropped off at all polling stations by 9:50 a.m., election
officials said, and voting returned to normal. But for some of those who
had shown up as early as 7 a.m. to cast their ballots and could not
wait, it was too little, too late.

        "This is just obscene that we can live in one of the most
forward-thinking counties in the country, and have so many advantages
open to us, and for some reason we can't get our polls to work," said
campaign volunteer Valerie Coll, who was stationed outside Cannon Road
Elementary School in Silver Spring.

        ...

        "That's negligence," he said of the undelivered cards, speaking
outside Green Street Elementary School in Annapolis, where he cast his
own ballot without difficulty. "That's inexcusable."

        ...

        She said precinct workers began calling the board's officers at
6:15 a.m. to report that the cards -- which function like ATM cards and
are handed to each voter as he or she arrives at the polls -- had not
been delivered. Voters are supposed to insert their cards into the
electronic voting machines so that the correct ballot will appear on
screen. Without the cards, the voting machines cannot work.

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