Reply #36: MD: Idea for Emergency Paper Ballots Torn Up by Election Officials [View All]

[tbyg52]

It goes without saying that some voters will encounter long lines at the polls this Election Day. The question for voting rights groups and election officials is how to shorten waiting times, and they're sharply at odds.

SAVEourVotes and the Fair Elections Legal Network want precincts to turn to emergency paper ballots if there are not enough touch-screen machines to keep lines moving. Paper ballots, used now for absentee and provisional voting, record votes with optical scan machines that read voters' marks on the ballots, similar to standardized tests.

William A. Edelstein, an election judge from Baltimore who has researched paper ballots extensively, made his case to the State Board of Elections in Annapolis on Thursday, saying that waits over 45 minutes are too long and that many people left before voting in 2004. "They were disenfranchised."

Local election administrators said a paper ballot system could create havoc with workers and voters who would not know how it works. "With just over 60 days left, that's an inadequate amount of time," Guy Mickley, director of the Maryland Association of Election Officials, told the board. "You could potentially intimidate and confuse voters." Not to mention the $1.3 million it would take to set up privacy barriers and software, he said.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/30/AR2008083001689.html