T Minus Five Days: Voting Problems

With just five days left until E-Day, reports are surfacing of problems with early voting across the nation.

New Bern, North Carolina:

Sam Laughinghouse of New Bern said he pushed the button to vote Republican in all races, but the voting machine screen displayed a ballot with all Democrats checked. He cleared the screen and tried again with the same result, he said. Then he asked for and received help from election staff.

“They pushed it twice and the same thing happened,” Laughinghouse said. “That was four times in a row. The fifth time they pushed it and the Republicans came up and I voted.”

Clark County, Nevada:

Clark County election officials insisted on Tuesday that electronic voting machines were not malfunctioning at polling locations are some voters complained that Sen. Harry Reid's name had been pre-selected.

Controversy arose after Boulder City resident Joyce Ferrara complained to FOX5 that when she went to vote for GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle, Reid's name was already checked.

Bucks County, Pennsylvania:

A trio of Bucks County residents backed by the county Republican committee say they have evidence linking Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy's campaign to a scheme to flood the county voter registration office with fraudulent applications for absentee ballots.

Illinois:

An Illinois county election official says that thousands, and potentially hundreds of thousands, of voters who are expecting a ballot sent to them by mail may be disenfranchised.

With all of the issues nationwide with electronic voting machines, perhaps it's time that states looked to Oklahoma for an example of a ballot that is very easy to understand, and works very well. It just doesn't get much simpler than "connect-the-arrows" (as shown in the 2006 Oklahoma sample ballot below).

2006 Oklahoma sample ballot