Scattered Voting Problems Reported

There were scattered voting problems reported in states today, but there didn't appear to be any major disasters — except for the individual voters affected.

Election Protection, a nonpartisan voting watchdog group, said it received hundreds of calls on its hotline from voters in New York City. Many complained that they showed up at the polls only to find that their names were not on the registration lists. This included some Brooklyn voters who had lived and voted in the same precinct for more than 20 years. Similar problems were reported in New Jersey and Arizona. Election officials said one problem could have been that individuals were not registered as either Republicans and Democrats, which was a requirement in some states.

Long lines and machine problems also were reported in some states. In Georgia, voters waited for as long as two hours because of problems with new electronic poll books used to verify voters' ID and registration status. In New Jersey, it took poll workers about 45 minutes to get machines working in the voting place used by the state's governor, Jon Corzine. Corzine told NPR that he had to wait 15 minutes before he was able to cast his ballot.

Some polling places opened late in Illinois because of machine problems. In one precinct, about 20 voters were mistakenly given styluses designed for electronic touchscreen machines to mark their paper ballots. When the voters complained that nothing was showing up on the ballots, they were told that's because the markers were filled with invisible ink! Election officials said they were trying to contact the voters after they found out what had happened.

In the Los Angeles area, two polling places didn't open until about noon, meaning some voters couldn't vote when they showed up in the morning. Other California voters, who did not state a party preference on their registrations, complained that they were told they couldn't vote in the Democratic primary — even though they should have been allowed to do so.

In all, election experts say the problems were fairly small, considering the large turnout. But sometimes it takes days — and some close contests — before the full extent of problems becomes clear.

-- Pam Fessler

11:17 PM ET | 02- 5-2008 | permalink