Some voting woes were not so minor problems (All Dem Areas)

[Lochloosa]

And so it begins....

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/090606/met_4863356.shtml

Several precincts had a shortage of Democratic ballots on hand.


By MARY KELLI PALKA, The Times-Union


Voting difficulties in Northeast Florida ranged from slightly inconvenient to major headaches for some voters in Tuesday's primary election.


Some voters found a precinct without electricity while others found no paper ballots available.

The biggest problem was the shortage of Democratic ballots in predominantly African-American precincts on the city's Westside and in Northwest Jacksonville, said Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.

He said the manager of the information technology department inadvertently confused the amount of Democratic and Republican ballots needed at four polling places: Long Branch Senior Center on Franklin Street, Clanzel T. Brown Community Center on Moncrief Road, Emanuel Missionary Baptist Church near Division Street and St. Paul AME Church on New Kings Road.

[ixion]

1. keyword: "inadvertently"

yeah. right. whatever. :grr:

[Supersedeas]

8. inadvertent and Democrat are bound at the hip in Jeb country

[Ragin_mad]

2. I thought Florida used touchscreen voting

How do you run out of touchscreens ?

[Lochloosa]

4. We have both here. Touch screen and optical scan.

[w4rma]

5. Denser/Democratic leaning areas tend to be using touch screens.

Smaller Repug leaning areas tend to be using optical scans.

[w4rma]

3. Yeah, he "inadvertently" gave Republicans lots of ballots and shorted Dems

of ballots thereby ensuring fewer Democratic votes.

[Igel]

10. On the other hand, it was a primary.

So there were fewer dem votes, but it didn't affect whether a dem or a repub won.

Whether it affected which dems won depends on how support for the candidates was distributed among voters by time of day. Did early voters differ in the levels of support for each candidate from those later in the day? (I'm making the assumption there were multiple dem candidates running.)

Still wrong. But I'm not sure it affected any outcome in the primary. It may affect turnout in November, but I'm not about to guess whether it'll discourage dems in those precincts or piss them off so they turn out in greater numbers.

[EFerrari]

11. The Thugs can manipulate the primaries to try to get the candidate

they want to run against, right?

And remember, practice makes perfect. :(

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. Primaries matter

The biggest problem was the shortage of Democratic ballots in predominantly African-American precincts on the city's Westside and in Northwest Jacksonville, said Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.

In this case, one group (African-Americans) would be underrepresented in the primary. So, a candidate who was more popular with African-Americans would be less likely to be chosen than they would have been, had an appropriate number of ballots been made available.

Draw your own conclusions...

[Igel]

14. Could be. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Keep making excuses

Nothing to see here, move along.

[Ezlivin]

6. Why is it that Democrats are ALWAYS "inadvertently" affected?

Just for once I'd like to see an election "mistake" that "accidentally" benefited a Democrat.

[nosillies]

7. My county (Volusia) offers the option of scan or touch screen

Among the candidates' signs outside the polling place, I was pleased to see many "Don't Touch the Touch Screens!" signs.

[warrens]

9. at this rate

We're going to need notarized, indestructible, numbered ballots to keep the fucking repukes from stealing votes.

[MGKrebs]

12. Easy mistake to make perhaps, BUT,

as someone else pointed out, why do these always go against Dems?

And it would be effective if Repubs were advocating their people show up pull Dem ballots like they sometimes do here in Georgia. (Can you do that in Florida?)

Anyway, do we know if these people have any party affiliation?
The IT persons' name is Marolyn Bernard.
http://www.duvalelections.com/content.aspx?id=15

Can't find much on her, but can we assume that she was appointed/hired by the supervisor of elections? That would be Jerry Holland, and the only thing close to a party affiliation for him is a $2000 donation to Bush in 2003 by a "Gerald D. Holland, employed by the city of Jacksonville". The current Supervisor of Elections was on the city council at that time.
http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?txtName=holland&txtState=FL&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2006=Y&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=&txt1998=&txt1996=&txt1994=&txt1992=&txt1990=&txtSoft=N&Order=N&Cycles=3&Cycle1=2006&Cycle2=2004&Cycle3=2002&Page=2