Election-Campaign Law

Wait, It was the Poll Worker Not the Machine

By Thad Hall

So the malfunctioning voting machines in Governor Corzine's polling place were actually malfunctioning poll workers. Why am I not shocked? Here is the updated AP story.

New Jersey officials said Tuesday that they were getting more complaints than usual about problems at polling places , including some early-morning confusion at Gov. Jon S. Corzine's polling place. Michael Harper, clerk to the Hudson County Board of Elections, said that when the first voter arrived at the Hoboken fire station where Corzine votes, an election worker did not press the right buttons to set the machine.

The worker called the Board of Elections, which talked her through the problem, Harper said. He said the worker was confused because different buttons are used for the primary election than in other elections.

Some media reports said that Corzine, who has endorsed U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, could not vote because of the problem. But his spokesman, Jim Gardner, said the governor was running late for other reasons and voted around 6:50 a.m , about a half-hour later than scheduled. Harper said when the governor did vote, he was in and out of the polling place in 2 1/2 minutes and was the 14th person to vote on that machine. Harper said another voting machine in the same firehouse was accidentally turned off soon after voting began at 6 a.m. and another machine had to be brought in to replace it.

Full post as published by Election Updates on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).