NC’s most liberal county hit with long voting lines after polling place computers go down

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory

The most liberal county in North Carolina reported on Tuesday that wait times for voting had increased because polling place computers were experiencing “tech problems.”

“We’ve got some tech issues @ our polling places that we’re fixing now. Please be patient with us as we iron out some kinks,” a message on Durham County’s Twitter account said soon after polls opened on election day.

While the computers are only used to check in voters, the county said that the glitch was expected to cause delays. Votes were being cast on paper ballots, which is the county’s normal practice.

“May slightly increase wait times, but everyone will still get to #vote!” one tweet noted.

-snip-



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/ncs-most-liberal-county-hit-with-long-voting-lines-after-polling-place-computers-go-down/

[SpankMe]

2. I'm still waiting for the most conservative county to have problems.

I think it'll be a long wait.

Does anyone really believe such a pivotal county is having "real" problems? I smell a rat.

[Crash2Parties]

22. Naw, they prolly get UPS's & T1's just to connect to the central office...

[Kittycow]

3. I hope the turned away voters can come back if that was the issue. :(

[pansypoo53219]

5. paper & #2 pencils never have yech issues a sharpener can't fix.

[MynameisBlarney]

6. I, for one, am shocked.

SHOCKED!

[Iliyah]

7. Ugh. Any reported problems in the conservative areas?

[Snotcicles]

11. Funny how these polling problems are always politically selective. nt

[MontanaMama]

12. It's Rigged!!

Just not the way the Orange Nightmare claims it is.

Vote my mail ought to be the law of the land - it would solve the vast majority of polling place shenanigans. Effing losers!

[judesedit]

13. Isn't it funny that it happens to be a "liberal" area that's having these "technical" issues

The GOP will do everything they can today to keep Hillary from winning. It's not gonna work.

[AllyCat]

14. Of course, they did. Pencil and paper. Best method yet.

[judesedit]

16. I vote absentee and take mine and my family's ballots directly to the campaign office....early

[judesedit]

15. They do that crap in Florida, too. Once I stood in line for at least hours and when I got in there

there were about 20 machines, but they would only let us use 4 of them. The rest were shut down. The "chad" issue was bullshit, too. Jebby promised Florida to his brother. They were not going to count the votes. I hold him as responsible as GW for the disaster they put this country and the world through.

[mnhtnbb]

23. Ballots in Durham County are NOT cast on machines: they are paper ballots

The problem is with the laptops being used to check voters in and verify name/address/hand out paper ballot.

I'm next door in Orange County and we use paper ballots, too. The Dem counties in NC are smart enough to use
paper ballots.

It is a glitch, but it's only in the last few years that we've gone to using laptops for voter check in. The poll registration books
are available and being used.

Still, it's an unwanted problem. Fortunately, we've had really excellent early voting turnout so hopefully it won't make lines too
long.

What is worse is that the Republicans did away with straight party ticket voting. So with the paper ballots--in Dem controlled counties--
voting takes a LOT longer than it used to in order to fill in those bubbles.

[patsimp]

17. what a coincidence in a state where the republicans are actually trying to fix the election

in conman trump's favor

[SwankyXomb]

18. OF COURSE they did

[OKNancy]

24. Not county wide... update from Washington Post

Officials initially thought laptops countywide were affected. But Board of Elections spokeswoman Briana Kahn said the board received reports from “five or six” precincts where the laptops were malfunctioning and decided to switch to paper poll books throughout the county “as a precaution.” Individual precincts did have the paper registries on hand this morning as an emergency backup, Kahn said.

The county has used the computerized check-in system since October 2015, Kahn said. “It’s not an individual laptop issue,” she said. The county uses VR Systems of Tallahassee, as its vendor for the check-in laptops, but not voting machines.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-updates-on-the-2016-election-voting-and-race-results/durham-county-n-c-computers-fail-forcing-return-to-paper-for-voter-check-in/?tid=ss_tw

[4lbs]

25. Why even use a machine to "check people in" for voting?

Here in San Diego, CA county area, all registered voters have their names PRINTED out onto fields on sheets. Each precinct is given a binder with pages of all the voters in that precinct, sorted by last name. Then there are separator sheets with tabs labeled "A", "B", "C",...., "Z", so it could be flipped to the correct starting letter.

When a voter checks in, the poll worker looks up the name and the voter signs next to their name.

Takes all of 20 seconds.

In 2012, it took me about 20 minutes to vote, and I was in line at 7:00pm, after work, and most of that was waiting for one of the 15 voting booths to open up. There were about 80 people in line at 7:00pm.

I brought my sample ballot that was mailed to me, and had my Driver's License, as any voter IDs that were needed.

[retread]

41. When a state government is run by repugs voting becomes much more "complicated". We had

the same system here until a forced upgrade replaced all sign-in with scanners. The magnetic strip on my driver's license doesn't scan; soooo all info has to be entered by hand or like today slowly by one finger!

[DonCoquixote]

26. Comrade hacker first class

Is going to get a dacha when he goes back to Moscow..excellent job comrade!

[TygrBright]

28. Gosh, how unexpected! n/t

[LeeM]

31. Time for some traffic problems

Is Gov Christy helping out with Durham elections?

[lark]

35. Hmm, are we seeing Russian hackers in action?

Now who would delaying voting in Philly help, and who would it hurt? Could be coincidence, but maybe not.