States Prepare for Tests of Voting- System Changes

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05voting.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

After California ordered a switch to paper ballots from touch-screen voting machines for Tuesday’s primary, election officials in the sprawling, 7,200-square-mile Riverside County had to decide the best way to pick up the ballots so they could be centrally counted on time: helicopter or truck?

They chose land rather than air, because the last time the helicopter had been grounded by fog. But then they encountered another problem: 60,000 absentee ballots had begun to fall apart at the fold lines.

“They may be high-tech or they could be low-tech, but the problems are always there,” said Barbara Dunmore, the county registrar of voters.

As voters in 24 states head to polls or caucuses Tuesday to pick their party’s presidential candidate, local election officials around the country are bracing for a long, exhausting night and an array of unpredictable factors that might prevent some states from reporting final tallies until early Wednesday morning. Although no one is predicting serious problems, many voting officials acknowledge that they could happen.