Voting lines not as long as feared

A few equipment problems reported around the county

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 4, 2008 - 3:29:05pm

Many West Volusians were pleasantly surprised Election Day morning. The long lines they expected at polling places in West Volusia had not materialized.

At Precinct 214 at Kepler Road Baptist Church in DeLand, there was no wait.

At Precincts 215-216, at Wayne G. Sanborn Activities Center in DeLand, voters said they had waited anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.

It's a good afternoon to go vote. Even the weather is cooperating, with cloudy skies providing shade, but no rain, and moderate temperatures. Polls will remain open until 7 p.m., and voters who are already in line at 7 p.m. will be permitted to vote.

A few technical problems were reported when the polls opened around the county this morning.

Memory-card failures were reported at Precinct 308 at First Congregational Church of Christ in Orange City; at Precinct 705 at Westminster by the Sea Presbyterian Church in Daytona Beach Shores; and at Precinct 904 at Florida Shores Property Owners Clubhouse in Edgewater.

The memory cards were replaced.

Elections workers reported optical scanner failures at five precincts. Memory cards were removed from the malfunctioning scanners and installed in new scanners at:

• Precinct 109 at the Blackwelder Building in DeLeon Springs

• Precinct 208 at Volusia County Department of Public Works in DeLand

• Precinct 407 at Deltona Christian Church

• Precinct 515 at Ormond Beach Union Church

• Precinct 620 at Bethune Cookman University Parlin Student Center in Daytona Beach

Completed but unscanned ballots were placed into compartments on the sides of the machines, to be scanned later.

Two other precincts, No. 428 at Deltona Lakes Baptist Church, and No. 731 at the Port Orange Regional Library, reported difficulties before getting their scanners operating, but replacements were not required.

Elections observer Elizabeth Camarota of Florida Fair Elections Coalition in DeLand reported a broken memory-card seal at Precinct 424, at Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church in Deltona.

Elections Supervisor Ann McFall confirmed the report, but said no additional information was available.

Election observers and activists — including McFall's opponent, Susan Pynchon — have worked hard this year to encourage the Elections Office and the Canvassing Board to be more careful about ballot security. They have urged elections officials to carefully track the security seals on ballot bags, memory cards, voting machines, and the doors behind which voting equipment is stored.

The memory card is the small disc inside each voting machine that stores the votes, similar to a disc inside a digital camera that stores photographs.

The discs are easily removed and, election-integrity workers say, vulnerable to hacking and covert replacement, unless their handling is carefully monitored.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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