Reply #20: A new menace to democracy

[Melissa G]

A new menace to democracy

Adam Yalowitz, Print Copy Editor
10/9/2006


Art by Nathan Yaffe
This September, many Blair seniors were eligible to vote for the first time, but some of them found casting a ballot harder than they had expected. When voters in Montgomery County went to the polls to vote in the primary elections on Sept. 12, many were turned away.

That morning, the Montgomery County Board of Elections had failed to deliver the plastic cards necessary to activate electronic voting machines at all 238 polling centers countywide. Polls scheduled to open at 7 a.m. opened as late as 11:30 a.m. As a result, election judges were instructed to allow voters to use provisional paper ballots. But many polling places quickly ran out.

Even after voter access cards were delivered, many polling places were still not operating because printers, used to give voters a ballot confirmation receipt, malfunctioned. The Board of Elections extended voting times one hour to allow those who could not vote in the morning a chance to do so, but the Board will never know how many voters went to the polls and were turned away.

After the failure of the electronic voting system in the primary elections, county and state officials are investigating how the Board of Elections failed to deliver the voter cards. This debacle is just one more reason why Maryland must return to paper ballots for the upcoming general elections.

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=6736