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electionline Weekly - November 9, 2006


I. In Focus This Week

Widespread glitches, snafus and fender-benders, but few major meltdowns
electionline.org staff fan-out nationwide for first-hand account of November 7, 2006

electionline.org

Even as the votes are still being tabulated in some areas and recounts are pending in others, for all intents and purposes, the books are closing on Election Day 2006 - the first post-HAVA general election. electionline.org staff fanned out nationwide to report on what they saw in some of the "states to watch." Here are their reports:

ARIZONA
Ivan Sciupac

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Despite some pockets of long lines, confusion over new voter ID requirements, and Optech Insight machine scanning problems, Arizona voters went to the polls Tuesday without encountering any widespread voting problems, but some confusion over the state's on-again, off-again voter ID law.

Many of Arizona's 2,568,041 registered voters faced little delay or confusion filling out this year's four-page ballot even though they faced a more stringent identification law.

Approved in 2004, Proposition 200 requires voters to present photo identification or two forms of non-photo ID when casting their ballots. Under the law, voters who do not have proper ID are allowed to vote provisionally so long as they return to the elections office with the proper forms of ID within five days.

In Phoenix's Historic District, voters said they had the proper forms of identification and did not need to wait long to cast their votes.

Lynn Moriarty said she went to her polling place at 6:15 a.m. - still wearing her pajamas - to make sure she avoided any confusion.

"I knew I was going to have to do the ID," she said. "I had to get online and look at what was acceptable. My driver's license doesn't have my current address so I took my voter registration card. I knew my license wasn't going to be enough."

In Guadalupe, a small, predominantly Latino town with about 5,500 permanent residents, voters faced little problem with the enforcement of the ID law, streaming into the town hall to vote since early morning, poll watchers stationed outside said.

Patricia Jimenez, who serves on the Guadalupe Town Council, voted mid-afternoon after spending her morning driving around the 1-square mile town encouraging residents to vote and reminding them to bring identification forms. She said she was concerned Proposition 200 would discourage some residents from showing up.

"We're such a small town, where people walk and don't always carry their ID with them," she said. "In this election, we could lose some votes because people don't know they have to bring picture ID."

Erick Lopez, a volunteer for the non-partisan Mi Familia Vota/My Family Votes, said he met with many Guadalupe residents in the two months leading up to the election encouraging them to vote.

"We don't tell them who to vote for, just that they should vote," Lopez said outside Guadalupe Town Hall. "We try to get rid of any intimidation they might have."

Lopez said of the roughly 1,150 precincts in Arizona, Guadalupe's ranks last in Latino voter turnout. His organization has encouraged registered voters to vote by absentee ballot to reduce any confusion or intimidation they might feel at a polling place.

In Tempe, several of the Optech Insight voting machines at a polling place jammed when voters incorrectly filled out their ballots. "The ballots are getting stuck," said elections inspector Maureen Douglas. "We were yanking them out and putting them back in."

In one case, Douglas said, elections workers at her polling place tried three times unsuccessfully to scan a ballot. "It wouldn't go through so I opened the bypass," Douglas said.

In such cases, she said, elections procedures call for her to place misread ballots into a special envelope, which workers were planning on taking to the county elections offices after the polls close.

Lines at this polling place were "pretty steady," Douglas added. "It's actually been smoother today than at the primary.

When asked about the contentious voter ID law, Douglas said, "Almost every voter has been prepared."

At the Scottsdale Civic Center Library, a voter recalled seeing a 90-year-old woman well known to poll workers who did not have an ID and was forced to cast a provisional ballot.

Arizona required media and other people who were not voting to stay at least 75 feet from polling places to prevent interference or intimidation. An electionline.org reporter observed at many polling places very little wait and nearly no lines, with most voters going in and out within a matter of minutes.

"This was a piece of cake," said Jane Pastori of Scottsdale. "I thought there would be long lines. It was easy, in and out."

CONNECTICUT
Dan Seligson

MYSTIC, Conn. - The roll-out of optical-scan voting machines in a state that has relied on paperless lever machines since the 1930s went off largely without a hitch, despite some grumbling from voters who said they missed the satisfying clunk of pulling the lever to cast a ballot.

Extra scrutiny is likely in the form of a recount in the state's 2nd Congressional district, but from early indications - and electionline.org's 280 mile loop of the state that included visits to nearly a dozen polling places - election workers and voters both comprehended and embraced the paper-based voting system that, by next year, will supplant the bulky metal lever machines.

The relatively smooth introduction of the machines could be attributed to the simplicity and familiarity of filling out forms by filling in circles on ballots. Anyone who has taken a standardized test, played the lottery or completed one of any number of forms requiring darkening circles or rectangles grasped the optical scan concept quickly.

But as an elderly voter in Westbrook told an election official after she explained how to complete the optical-scan ballot by noting the resemblance to college entrance exams, "that's assuming I went to college."

For those who never went to college, or never filled out an optical-scan form before, help was available in the form of at least two trainers positioned at the doors. In East Hartford, the three precincts visited appeared to have at least 10-12 poll workers, two who manned the door to ask voters if they needed an explanation on how to use the voting machines and two more at the optical-scan reader to assist with the actual casting of the vote.

A portable DVD player had an instructional demonstration in both Spanish and English playing in an endless loop at entrances as well.

And the ballot design itself seemed to help voters with the transition. By arranging parties horizontally and offices vertically, the paper ballot was almost identical in format to the presentation of the lever machine ballot.

Before the election, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz (D) toured the state, visiting with voters and officials in the 25 cities and towns using the optical scan this year. She touted the benefits of the voting during her visits, saying the system "provides a level of security needed to ensure the short-term and long-term integrity of our elections."

But that security was called into question just a week before the vote, when a team of researchers from the University of Connecticut, hired by the state to examine the optical-scan system, reported security vulnerabilities.

Nonetheless, the university's Voting Technology Research Center recommended that the state use the machine, its team leader in a release stated he "strongly supported" the choice to use optical-scan voting machines.

There were scattered complaints, however. In East Hartford, a woman challenged an election worker to "prove to her these machines are safe" before angrily casting her ballot.

At another precinct, a man and wife said they had different experiences with the paper, the husband saying he had a hard time finding where he was supposed to make the circle, his wife countering that "he would have gotten it if he took the time to read the sample [ballot]." The man required a second ballot to vote, the first having been marked as spoiled.

The ballot design had one notable oddity, as some candidates for state senate and other statewide offices appeared twice in columns, once for the Democratic Party and again for smaller parties, including the state's Working Families Party. Voters who circled the candidate twice at polling places would have their ballots rejected by the machines for over-voting, giving them an opportunity to re-mark a ballot. While it might be typical for Connecticut elections, it seemed to a casual observer to at least raise the possibility of confusing voters.

For absentee voters, two votes for the same candidate, one in the Democratic row and another in the Working Family row, would presumably need to be scrutinized by hand to determine the voter's intent.

Accessible voting was available statewide as well, though little information could be gleaned about the success of the system from a day's worth of observation. While a vote-by-phone system was operational in every polling place in the state, no voters were spotted using it.

Overall, state officials said they were pleased with the roll-out, sealing the fate of the gray lever machines, their curtains, their full-faced ballots and that satisfying "ker-chunk" of a cast ballot.

"Everything worked very, very well," said Dan Tapper, a spokesman for Bysiewicz. "We had very few, if any, complaints."

MARYLAND
M. Mindy Moretti

BETHESDA, Md. - What a difference a month and half can make. Although there were often long lines due to high voter turnout and occasional problems at polling places statewide, Election Day 2006 went fairly well throughout Maryland.

Unlike the September primary, polls in Montgomery County seemed to open without a hitch at 7 a.m. and voting went smoothly throughout the day despite the lines.

"I arrived at 7:10 a.m. and there was a line of about 30 people waiting to vote. I was checked in by 7:22 a.m. and by 7:35 a.m. I had finished voting, got my 'I Voted' sticker and asked where the beer was," joked Mike Lavorel who voted at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Bethesda. "Unfortunately they had none so I'm going to work instead. Definitely a vastly improved experience from September."

Lavorel did note that while he was in line, one of the voting machines did not have its screen turned away from the crowd but that it was pretty far away so it was hard to see. He said two election judges were discussing how to alter the contrast on the screen and make it less visible to everyone in the room.

Although voters showing up at the polls on Tuesday had not headed Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich's call to vote absentee because of problems during the primary, some still seemed apprehensive about the Diebold touch-screen machines.

"All in all [the process was] pretty easy," Jennifer Lavorel said. "Too bad I can't be sure about the accuracy of the [expletive] machine."

As the morning wore on, long lines persisted, but still, there were few problems and there seemed to be a genuine sense of relief amongst voters.

"Even with a sizeable line, I was in and out in 20 minutes," said Karen Migdail who voted at Congregation Beth El in Bethesda. "Voting went very well. A vast improvement over the primaries when the check-in computers crashed periodically. Then I waited 45 minutes to vote and the line was shorter than it was this morning. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I showed up this morning, but this was definitely not it."

When Mary Jennings voted mid-morning at the Oakland Terrace Elementary School in Silver Spring the lines had started to diminish as people began to go about their days.

"It went very smoothly, they were very organized, despite the fact that the folks checking us in were old and seemed a little timid of the machines," Jennings said. "They did fine though, although it wasn't very busy."

Early in the day in Prince George's County most complaints seemed to stem from groups of people hired to hand out literature outside of polling places that many called misleading.

"Compared to last time around, things went really well today," said Chris Dwyer who voted at the Judith P. Hoyer Early Childhood Center in Cheverly. "I was out the door in 20 minutes. I was identified by the computer - randomly I assume - for verification, but the woman who was checking me in is my neighbor, so she was able to verify who I am with no hassles at all. With the exception of the folks outside handing out misleading information, which really [expletive] me off, it was a good experience."

However, as Election Day wound down, there were problems in the county, although again, none that seemed to mirror the problems Prince George's had counting the votes during the primary.

A perfect storm of problems including weather and traffic that had many people showing up at the polls in the county just before the 8 p.m. close time and a lengthy ballot meant the last voter didn't end up casting their ballots until near midnight. But voters in this largely African-American county didn't seem to mind and looked at is as more of a lesson in civil rights.

"Four hours is nothing compared to someone who gave their life," Margaret Barnes, who immigrated to the United States 33 years ago from Ghana, told The Washington Post as she completed her vote just around midnight. "I felt honored to even be there to vote."

As for pre-election concerns about the impact the record number of absentee ballots could have on the outcome of the race, those proved unfounded as candidates in the two closest races -governor and U.S. Senator - had conceded to their opponents by noon on Wednesday.

OHIO
Sean Greene

CLEVELAND, Ohio - After a rough start to Election Day in several dozen polling places that included poll worker difficulty starting up machines in some locations and no-show poll workers in others, officials from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (BOE) said they had most problems worked out by late morning.

Yet a complaint filed by the Ohio Democratic Party at 6 p.m. to keep some polling places open until 9 p.m. put the county's election process in the national spotlight yet again.

As the day began at the Old Stone Church in downtown Cleveland, poll workers were readying machines before polls opened. However, by 6:30 a.m. (when polls open in Ohio) only two of the eight machines were working. By 7 a.m. six machines were working - two still out of service due to memory card problems. With no crush of voters, though, the initial delay in getting machines up and running did not lead to long lines.

After checking in and showing identification, casting ballots, which included numerous statewide and local races, issues and questions, took voters between five and 10 minutes to complete.

One of the first voters at the polls was told he needed to cast a provisional ballot. However, the voter appeared to get lost in the shuffle when more voters entered the polling place and poll workers helped check them in. While poll workers tended to others, the would-be provisional ballot caster left.

Emily Tutt voted for her first time on Diebold electronic voting machines equipped with a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). "It was easy," she said. She did look at the paper trail, although not all of it. "I didn't verify every vote."

Support was not universal.

At the Sterling Recreation Center polling place in Cleveland, a departing voter loudly declared, "Go back to paper ballots."

The more pressing issue at the polling place, which had two precincts, was that presiding poll judges did not show up. The Board of Elections sent someone to help by 7:30 a.m.

At the Boulevard Elementary School in Cleveland Heights, voter Elizabeth Woda praised the poll workers. "These workers were 10 times better" than those in the May primary, she said. "It was smooth as it could be."

Another Cleveland Heights polling place, the Noble Neighborhood library, faced several problems and later on in the day it would become one of 16 polling places that would be ordered to stay open until 9 p.m.

The crowded polling place was in a small basement room which held four different precincts. Two of the precincts had lines of 15-20 people each. In one of the lines, poll workers offered voters the option of casting paper ballots and four voters took them up on it.

The building also had an elevator that was not working. At least one elderly voter could not get down the stairs and poll workers had to arrange curbside voting for her.

Judy Schneider, though, said her voting experience was "fine, no problems" despite a 50 minute wait.

James Futrell said he liked the machines but also expressed concern.

"It was easy, but I don't trust Diebold," he said. "It's a good way to vote - if it's trustworthy."

At mid-day, Alan Melamed, board of elections spokesman, discussed the problems and the county's response.

"There were initial problems in a few places - some trouble getting machines up and running."

However, he cited the county's new computer program which helped monitor the problems.

Polling places were to call in five times during the day to report what was happening. The information was entered into the system to help the county assess problems and figure out any troubleshooting that needed to be done.

Later in the day, Jean Pinkney, the presiding judge at Cleveland's Holy Trinity Baptist Church said things were going well at her polling location. "It's going absolutely wonderfully," she said.

She had seen no problems with the voter identification requirements that had been the subject of controversy and lawsuits over the past month.

"Most people are bringing their drivers license. One person brought a gas bill. Two brought passports [not acceptable ID] but were able to show other identification," she said.

Newspaper reports have indicated there might have been some problems with the ID process elsewhere in the county, though. The Plain Dealer reported that in several polling places voters were able to get in the line to vote without signing in.

As evening approached, an election that the board of elections said had fewer reported problems than the May primary (which saw trouble at 145 polling locations), the Ohio Democratic Party filed a suit in federal court requesting 43 polling locations have their polling hours extended to 9 p.m. (The county had 574 polling places with 1,434 precincts). They claimed 4 polling places opened late, and the rest had other problems including long lines.

Judge Dan Aaron Polster agreed to a point, ruling 16 polling places had to stay open until 9 p.m.

Some on the board of elections expressed frustration with the ruling.

"In this election we had fewer problems than in the past. We now have a pattern of activists going to the courts at the last minute. We had a very smooth election up until that time," county elections chairman Robert T. Bennett ® told NewsChannel 5.

And the judge also noted, "Given the recent history of elections in this county, the court believes that the board of election did an excellent job in conducting today's election."

Election director Michael Vu agreed with this sentiment.

"We're miles ahead of where we were in May. There are still a lot of lessons to be learned, though," Vu said. "We could respond much more expeditiously to problems than in May."

Not all agreed with the board's relatively positive assessment.

"For anyone to suggest that the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has done their job well is akin to sticking your head in the sand," Chris Redfern, the head of the Ohio Democratic Party told NewsChannel 5.

Other issues cropped up as well later in the evening and into the next day. Memory cards could not initially be accounted for from 17 polling places. However, by Wednesday all the cards were found.

And the counting in the county (and the state) is not done yet. More than 30,000 absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted in Cuyahoga, with 144,000 left to count statewide.

PENNSYLVANIA
Kat Zambon

Despite machine failures and late openings at the polls, voting problems seemed to affect relatively few of the 462,831 voters who cast ballots in Allegheny County, Pa., home to Pittsburgh and some very close contests for Congress and the state house.

With poll monitors from Election Protection deployed throughout the city and county, and with national scrutiny on the state, the administration of the election was under a number of watchful eyes.

By 6:30 a.m., volunteers for Election Protection, a coalition of organizations led nationally by People for the American Way (PFAW), the NAACP, and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, had mostly picked up their supplies and left Hill House in Pittsburgh's Hill District in pairs to arrive at polling places by their 7a.m. scheduled opening.

At 7a.m., poll workers were still taping up signs, moving chairs around, and setting up machines. Casey Capitolo, a Black Political Empowerment Project volunteer, explained that some polling places, including Hill House, had moved since the primary, confusing both voters and poll workers. Hazel Evans, minority inspector, explained that the polling place was previously located in a garage. "This is the best move they could have made because it's more convenient for the senior citizens," she said, adding that the garage was cold and dirty.

"Late poll openings are a big problems and I'm shocked by how it's not looked at that way. People set aside that time to vote," Celeste Taylor, Pennsylvania state coordinator - African American Outreach for PFAW, said. "They're just now getting set up," Taylor said, pointing towards the polling place in Hill House's auditorium.

Miles away at the K. Leroy Irvis Towers apartment building, most voters leaving said they were pleased with the experience. Thirty voters had come in by 7:45 a.m. but one voter left the polls without confirming her vote "and it jammed the machine .If they don't push confirm, the machine is jammed," Joan Sheffey, judge of elections said.

Jackie Reynolds, judge of elections at the William S. Morehead Towers on Craig Street, told voters as they came in that her polling place was a little different from others because it caters specifically to voters with disabilities who live in the building.

Reynolds was surprised, however, that her polling place received five machines for the general election, since they only had two during the primary. Seventy voters had used the machines by 9 a.m. with few complaints, though voter Mike Watson said more could be done to improve accessibility.

"People say they're so easy to use . why don't they put a blindfold on and try to use it," he asked.

Voters Sarah Steinbauer and David Grom at the United Cerebral Palsy building on Centre Avenue were pleased with the voting process.

"I like the new machines actually . it was exactly what I expected," Steinbauer said.

Grom agreed, but added that he understood how the elderly might have problems with the machines. "I thought it was pretty cool . it's just computers, you know?"

One of the three voting machines in Forest Hills 8th district at Hope Lutheran Church had problems in the morning. "Once it began to malfunction, we couldn't get out of the malfunction," Diane McKay, poll board member, said, adding that only a few people voted before all of the machines worked.

As a line formed to use the two working machines, McKay told some voters they could come back later to vote because they didn't have paper ballots and weren't supposed to give provisional ballots to voters listed in the poll book. The same machine experienced a calibration problem later in the morning which was resolved.

McKay said that some of the voters she saw come in seemed concerned about whether their votes would be counted. "I think that enough people come in that are wary of it [voting on the new machines] . You can see it in their eyes."

"I liked the other machines," voter Betty Adams said after using Forest Hills' touch-screen machines. "It was a little hard to vote. The computer makes it difficult . but it's quicker that way," voter Robert Demby said, adding that it was easy once a poll worker helped him.

Similarly, machine problems at the Lemington School in Lincoln-Lemington kept the polls from opening on time. Dolores Hicks, a poll worker, said that a technician quickly came and repaired the machines, allowing the polls to open at 8 a.m. However, several voters couldn't wait to use the machines and left, though Hicks said that a few came back later in the day.

Back at Hill House, Election Protection volunteers entered election incident reports into a database. Crystal Williams, judge of elections at Hill House's polling place, said the election was running pretty smoothly. "Once they've [voters] seen how easy it is . they're like, 'that's all?'"

Mary McNulty, judge of elections at E. Liberty Lutheran Church, complained that the board of elections gave judges cell phones in the last election but not this year. "I'm using my minutes," she said. McNulty also said that the board wasn't giving elderly voters transportation to the polls in this election but those that made it to the polls adjusted well to the new machines. "The elderly aren't really comfortable with them, but they're doing fine." McNulty added that an older woman told her that she wasn't going to vote because she was intimidated by the machines but she voted anyway.

In the evening at Addison Hall, poll worker Mary Watson said that more than 100 voters had cast ballots by 6:30 p.m., more than during the primary election, though few had problems. "We have a well trained board and my voters follow directions . We had a few that had never voted before but they didn't have a problem."

Julian Pamplin voted with his mother Beverly Pamplin at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh just before the polls closed. "It was pretty easy, it was a little bit scary," he said. Pamplin explained that he works in a bank and occasionally hears from those who don't trust ATM's. "Now I'm almost in their shoes . I don't know why I have a feeling that they're more reliable."

Though she was slightly confused when she missed a question on the ballot, Beverly Pamplin said, "I thought that was cool" after voting, though she missed the curtains the lever machines had. "Tell them to bring the curtains back," she said, adding that when recently re-elected Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell cast his ballot on the morning news, he had a curtain.

Election Protection's hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE, received 1,100 calls from Pennsylvania, including many from those in Allegheny County complaining about machine failures, Tricia Jefferson, an attorney with Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights told The Associated Press. Mark Wolosik, Allegheny County elections director told KDKA that only 20 machines out of 4,600 had problems in the morning, not much different from problems experienced with the old lever machines.

II. Election Reform News This Week

In late October, electionline.org released its "Election Preview 2006: What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why" to provide a comprehensive look at the state of election reform around the country. electionline.org chose 10 "states to watch." Staff visited five of those states, and below is a news round-up from the other five. Additional media reports from other states can be found on electionline.org's Web site.

• Colorado - Denver election officials broadsided by tsunami; Vote centers "a total fiasco"; Denver auditor wants people fired over election snafu; Voters wait in the dark for a chance to vote in Denver, suburbs; Shortage of voting machines blamed for Douglas County delays; Disabled machine drags out vote tally

• Florida - State to audit flawed Sarasota County vote; Déjà vu: Florida recount likely for House; Sarasota County election supervisor in the eye of the storm; Sarasota County election official explains why election results were delayed; Florida voters face minor glitches; Sarasota County voters choose paper ballots; Firm's role in voting at issue

• Indiana - Rokita: No voter ID problems 'at all'; Voting machine glitches begin and end the day; Polling problems plague Marion County voters; Machine problems, ballot probe mar voting in Indiana counties; Delaware County voting system experiences total breakdown

• New York - Last stand for lever machine, Clinton snafu is one for (voter registration) books

• Washington - Flooding delays ballot counting, King County officials defend slow vote counting, stress accuracy, Other states have dirty tricks; we have flooding

• Potential recounts: A good source for close House races, some of which could be headed for recounts, is The Ohio State University's Mortiz School of Law. Another source is this The New York Times blog.

III. Election Reform News This Week Part II

Although much talk of the 2006 election cycle has been about machines and technology, on Election Day, it often becomes more human. This week's Election Reform News looks at several human interest (and one rodent) stories from Election Day 2006.

• Voters showed their dissatisfaction in a variety of ways on Tuesday, most by voting one way or another. However, one voter in Pennsylvania showed his dissatisfaction with a metal, cat-shaped paperweight. According to reports from The Associated Press, an Allentown man was arrested at a polling site after he smashed an electronic voting machine with the paperweight. Although police provided no motive, sources close to the case said Michael Young, a registered Independent, believed Republicans were trying to steal the election with electronic voting machines. "He came in here very peaceably and showed his ID," volunteer Gladys Pezoldt told The Morning Call, "then he got on the machine and just snapped.He was immediately remorseful. When the police came, he got up, tu! rned around and put his hands behind his back." Young will face charges of felony criminal mischief and tampering with voting machines. Lehigh County Board of Elections Chief Clerk Stacy J. Sterner said votes recorded on the machine (pictured here after the attack) were saved.

• It's tough enough knowing that so much is riding on this first post-HAVA general election, but imagine knowing that not only the nation, but much of the world is waiting on results in your county and you fail to hit the necessary buttons. That was the case for Duane Winslow, election administrator in Yellowstone County, Mont. who failed to "zero out" two of three voting-counting machines after counting absentee ballots. Around 12:40 a.m. Winslow and his staff realized there was a problem and they decided to start all over again. Winslow has become a bit of a media-darling in the wake of this, appearing on Good Morning America and Nightline. He's being lauded for his honesty for very publicly admitting that he goofed. "When I don't screw up, nobody says 'Good job,'" Winslow told The Billings Gazette, adding that it never occurred to him to do anything but give a straightfo! rward account of what happened after the polls closed.

• Sometimes, just getting into the voting booth was the hardest part. In the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, former first daughter Chelsea Clinton had to fill out an affidavit and a paper ballot when her name did not appear on the list of registered voters. It turns out the polling place had received the wrong poll book. In Denver, it took Bob Ritter, Democratic candidate for governor two hours of waiting in line before he was finally able to cast his ballot. Ohio's voter ID rules proved vexing for many people including Rep. Steve Chabot who was sent home to retrieve a bank statement and other paperwork to prove he wa! s who he said he was. And in South Carolina, Gov. Mark Sanford was turned away from the polls because he did not have his voter registration card. Sanford returned to his polling place later in the day after getting a replacement voter card.

• And in Oklahoma, there were reports that a "rogue squirrel" chewed through an electric cable, cutting off power to voting machines at several polling stations.