Blogged by Brad on 5/16/2006 @ 3:00pm PT...

BREAKING: HUNDREDS OF VOTING MACHINES BREAK DOWN IN PHILLY!
Train Wreck in Progress as Today's Primary Elections in PA Run Into Big Trouble...
Paper Ballots Being Passed Out, 'We're Dead' Says One Official ... (Who could have forseen such problems?!)

Pennsylvania is having their primary elections today and, as expected, the train wreck is underway. As reported by Philadelphia Daily News, hundreds of machines (in this case, those made by Danaher Guardian) have failed...

BREAKING NEWS: 100 voting machines broken

More than 100 voting machines are reported to be broken across the city, the Daily News has learned.

Apparently, the machines were broken when polls opened this morning -- they keep spitting out the paper tape that keeps the tally of the vote. It is the largest breakdown since we started using the new voting machines.

The broken machines were first reported in the weblog for TheNextMayor.com. Expect more on this story in tomorrow's Daily News.

The local ABC affiliate has more details. Amongst them...

The biggest problems have been at voting locations where multiple failures have been reported.

Ward 12, Division 20 in Germantown is one such location. Judge of Elections Bernard Bibbs followed the routine startup procedure, but neither machine would activate. In one case, the write-in paper tape just unrolled and then refused to roll back up. In the other case, the machine will only beep and do nothing else.

Bernard Bibbs/Judge of Elections: "We set them up the way they're supposed to be run electronically. They've been shut down all morning.... We're dead."

Similar problems have popped up across the city. Machines by the score have failed to operate. In most places, at least one machine is functioning. In those places where all the machines are down, voters can request a paper ballot.

Edward Schulgen/Deputy City Commissioner: "Give that voter a paper ballot, which is then sent to us after the election. We verify whether or not that person is registered in the right division. If that's correct, then we count that vote."

The number of failures seems to be evenly distributed across the city. It's more voting machine failures than the city has ever had before.

More from TheNextMayor.com...

This from an e-mail from a NextMayor friend...

"I voted before leaving for DC this morning and was told before voting that the write-in function on my machine was not working because the paper roll inside would not come up. Because I wanted to write in a candidate, I therefore had to fill out a provisional ballot, which may or may not be counted in the end.

I later heard from my judge of elections that this problem was happening AT EVERY VOTING MACHINE IN THE CITY."

LATE UPDATE: 100's of machines also failed in Pittsburgh across the state in Allegheny County! Details...

Blogged by Brad on 5/16/2006 @ 7:55pm PT...

E-VOTING TRAIN WRECK: Another 100+ Machines Fail in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh)!
More Disasters for Pennsylvania, This Time on ES&S Machines, Following Earlier Similar Disasters on Machines in Philly
ALSO: Rick Santorum Locked Out of Polling Place, Unable to Vote This Morning

Following on our earlier report today, covering 100's of electronic voting machines in Philadelphia which failed to start up this morning for Pennsylvania's primary election, we now have a similar report from the other side of the state.

100's of machines in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, also failed to work correctly today. If we're able to keep remember correctly (since the story doesn't name any voting machine company names), Allegheny County finally settled on voting machines made by ES&S, after they abandoned hopes of going with Diebold when their machines were found to be hackable, and then later found machines from Sequoia Voting Systems -- who they'd planned to use instead -- were discovered to be similarly hackable.

ES&S eventually won the prize, just weeks before today's primary -- we warned about going with a new system with so little time to prepare, but did they listen? -- yet appear to have lost the day for PA voters, according to this report from Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette...

The first Allegheny County election with electronic voting machines got off to a somewhat rocky start this morning, when more than 100 machines had problems. Surrounding counties reported almost identical problems.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato today said 120 machines wouldn't produce "zero-count" printouts to start the day confirming there were no votes registered in the machines.

Mr. Onorato said the elections bureau got 400 calls to start the day. By 11 a.m., there were still more than 20 polling places with problems.

There are more than 2,600 of the new machines spread over 1,314 precincts.

Mr. Onorato also said nine machines had their screens cracked during transit to the polling places.
...
Surrounding counties also were reporting problems with the zero-count printouts.

Larry Spahr said 20 or 25 of Washington County's 185 precincts reported problems. Mr. Spahr is director of elections.

More details on the failures in the Post-Gazette's story. Amongst those details, apparently Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was locked out of his polling place when an election worker failed to show up to open it this morning.

Problems reported with electronic voting machines

Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By Mike Bucsko and Chico Harlan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The first Allegheny County election with electronic voting machines got off to a somewhat rocky start this morning, when more than 100 machines had problems. Surrounding counties reported almost identical problems.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato today said 120 machines wouldn't produce "zero-count" printouts to start the day confirming there were no votes registered in the machines.

Mr. Onorato said the elections bureau got 400 calls to start the day. By 11 a.m., there were still more than 20 polling places with problems.

There are more than 2,600 of the new machines spread over 1,314 precincts.

Mr. Onorato also said nine machines had their screens cracked during transit to the polling places.

Machines were not working at a polling place in a senior citizens high rise at Brighton and North Avenues on the North Side early in the day, and voters were given paper ballots. The problem was corrected by 8 a.m.

Similar problems were reported at a precinct on nearby Federal Street.

The story was the same at St. Justin's Church on Mount Washington, where workers at 8 a.m. said they were waiting for help from county elections bureau staffers.

And none of the machines started at St. Bede Church in Point Breeze.

Voter Richard Barker said he waited 80 minutes and ended up using a paper ballot at Burchfield School in Shaler after the machines failed to start.

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum was among those locked out of his polling place at Forbes School in Penn Hills when an elections worker failed to show up. Mr. Onorato said the worker, at the last minute, couldn't get a ride.

Voters also reported problems at Markham School in Mt. Lebanon; at Lincoln Elementary and the Kelly Street Highrise in Pittsburgh's east end; and at Sacred Heart School in Emsworth.

Not every precinct had problems. One in Beechview reported that voters were commenting that using the new machines wasn't as hard as they expected.

But that precinct did share a prominent feature of others: low turnout. As of 2 p.m., only 18 people had cast votes.

Surrounding counties also were reporting problems with the zero-count printouts.

Larry Spahr said 20 or 25 of Washington County's 185 precincts reported problems. Mr. Spahr is director of elections.

"Most of our problems have centered around the printer on each unit," he said. "The lids on printers have to be locked tightly [for the zero-counts] to print. In most of the instances, the problems we had were with that printer, where folks didn't have the lids snapped down tightly. Paper has to be pulled through that hole. As far as the units working to their optimum, everything else has been fine. "Our poll workers were instructed how to properly set that printer up, but that's where the problem is."

Mr. Spahr said few delays resulted. "In one precinct, there were four voters that went in and they said they'd come back later. That was it. One technician and I went down there and . . . got set up. "Most have said this is a change for the better, and that includes the elderly. Most had some trepidation, but the majority opinion is, they're an improvement."

Westmoreland and Butler county officials said they had few problems but almost all of them were with the zero tapes.