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Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004

Election officials in Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota fielded Republican complaints of MoveOn.org activists hovering too close to polling stations, charges the liberal group denied. In Ohio, a federal judge ruled in a lawsuit filed earlier in the day that voters who did not receive absentee ballots on time could cast provisional ballots.

In Philadelphia, GOP activists claimed voting machines already had thousands of votes recorded on them when the polls opened. But city officials countered that the activists misunderstood numbers on odometers that record every vote ever cast, not just those for this election.

Overall, the problems were scattered, and there was no evidence of widespread disruptions by early afternoon on the East Coast.

"So far, it's no big, but lots of littles," said Doug Chapin, director of the Election Reform Information Project, a nonpartisan research group. "We know of no major meltdowns anywhere along the lines some people were worried about."

Tension was particularly high in some battleground states, however.

Republicans' Tires Slashed in Milwaukee

In Milwaukee, the tires of 30 vans Republicans had rented to help get out the vote were slashed. GOP spokesman Chris Lato said it was not clear who was responsible.

At one Cleveland polling place, a Democrat official claimed he was thrown out by a screaming poll judge before another told him he could return to the church basement.

Both parties had thousands of lawyers dispatched and on call to respond to trouble. In a decision early Tuesday, a federal appeals court cleared the way for political parties to challenge voters' eligibility at polling places throughout Ohio.

In Linn County, Iowa, a GOP poll watcher "was trying to challenge people for legitimately changing their address," said County Auditor Linda Langenberg.

A judge in Seminole County, Fla., meanwhile, granted an injunction sought by a GOP poll watcher who complained that Democrats were distributing flyers threatening party poll watchers with legal action if they challenged voters they didn't personally know.

In South Dakota, meanwhile, a federal judge partially granted Democrat Sen. Tom Daschle's request to limit the activities of Republican poll watchers after he accused the GOP of intimidating American Indian voters.

Machines Break Down

Touch-screen voting machines, meanwhile, broke down in scattered precincts in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, New Jersey and elsewhere, in some cases forcing voters to switch to paper ballots. One was in Princeton, N.J., where Princeton University professor Ed Felten said machines had been left unguarded overnight.

"The danger is someone will come along and open up the machines and tamper with them somehow," he said, adding that he had no evidence that had happened.

Nearly one in three voters nationwide, including about half of those in Florida, were expected to cast ballots using the ATM-style voting machines that computer scientists have criticized for their potential for software glitches, hacking and malfunctioning.

Many problems with electronic voting, whether accidental or intentional, might not be known until well after Tuesday, if at all. Most of the ATM-style machines, including all of Florida's, lack paper records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount.

Provisional ballots, new this presidential election, were another potential source of trouble.

A small number of voters who went to the wrong precinct in Pompano Beach, Fla., were given provisional ballots, which the county acknowledged was a mistake. In Florida, provisional ballots must be cast in a voter's correct precinct.

A federal law passed in response to the 2000 election mess required states to offer provisional, or backup, ballots to voters who find they are not listed on the rolls, or whose eligibility is somehow in question. The ballots are set aside and evaluated after the election; they could take 10 days or longer to resolve.

But states have interpreted the law differently, emphasizing the nation's lack of a unified voting system, the legacy of a patchwork of balloting technologies, regulations, partisan bickering and litigation.

Add to that confusion: absentee ballots, many of which arrived late or not at all. In Broward County, Fla., where thousands did not receive absentee ballots, some who showed up at polling stations were told they couldn't vote because they were registered as absentee, said Reggie Johnson, a coordinator with Election Protection Coalition, a voting-rights group. Johnson said, however, that he did not perceive any systematic effort to disenfranchise or intimidate voters.

Philadelphia Republicans, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit seeking more time to challenge absentee ballots cast by Democrats.

In Newark, N.J., more than 200 voters sought court orders because they were turned away from a polling place, mostly because their names were not on voter lists, said Frank Askin, a professor at Rutgers Constitutional Law Clinic. In 95 percent of the cases, he said, judges later ruled they could cast ballots.

At the State University of New York at Albany, some students found their names no longer on voter-registration rolls, though they had voted at the same location in the past. They were given provisional ballots.

Only White Women Aren't Intimidated?

Joanna Markenssinis, a campaign finance analyst for the state Board of Elections in Albany, also discovered herself removed.

"If I had been elderly, if I had been a young person voting for the first time, if I were handicapped, or a woman of color, I would have been so intimidated that I would have turned around and walked out, and I would not have voted today," Markenssinis said.

Mistakes, failures and poorly prepared poll workers also caused trouble.

Voters in one Richmond, Va., precinct using an old-style machine briefly cast ballots in the wrong congressional race. And in about a dozen New York City locations, voters reported late openings, broken down machines or insufficient or inadequately trained staff.

"We all filled out paper ballots and slipped them into the box," voter Alexandra Carter said. "It's like we were voting for a student government office."

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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