ELECTRONIC VOTING Minor glitches reported in Ohio

Machines in Cuyahoga County were not ready in time for poll opening.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Tardy poll workers who failed to set up electronic voting machines on time, printer errors and voters taking extra time to cast ballots in new ways were among glitches reported Tuesday in Ohio's first punch-card free election.
The primary was the first in which polling sites in all 88 Ohio counties were using either touch-screen electronic machines or ones that electronically scan ballots that voters have marked.
The switch from punch cards to more sophisticated technology was mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, prompted by the punch-card-driven mess in Florida after the 2000 presidential election.
In Cuyahoga County, Ohio's largest, a small number of people left a few Cleveland polling sites without voting when late-arriving workers did not get new electronic voting machines ready in time for the 6:30 a.m. poll opening.
Poll worker troubles
Poll workers, who underwent extra training for the new system, eventually handed out paper ballots that voters filled out by hand, but some people who could not wait left without voting, county elections chief Michael Vu said.
Other poll workers had trouble figuring out how to get the new machines turned on and needed help from some 120 technicians from voting machine companies roving the state.
"What we had is what we anticipated, a learning curve that poll workers would have to address, which came true," said Vu, who recommended hand-counting 16,000 absentee ballots because test counts were inconsistent for an unknown reason.
"We want these ballots to be counted accurately above all else. At this point, that means conducting a hand count," he said.
Extra time needed
Elsewhere, elections officials and voters said things went smoothly other than the expected extra time needed to get acquainted with new systems. Many counties reported kinks with printers, which are to spit out paper receipts to help verify votes.
Pam Swafford, deputy director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said 100 troubleshooters helped a few poll workers in the Cincinnati area who were unfamiliar with new optical scan machines, despite having attended classes to learn how to run them.
"We do have problems, but not with the machines," Swafford said. "It's that poll workers don't understand how to bring them up."
Delaware County deputy elections board director Janet Brenneman said some printers weren't working early but troubleshooters fixed them, and only one location in the central Ohio area opened late.
"It's been an interesting experience. There's been ups and downs," Brenneman said.
There was no chance of votes being lost because of malfunctioning printers because the machines won't let a person cast a ballot if a printer is not working, she said.
Cuyahoga County reported some Diebold touch-screen machines showed a message indicating a printer error.
That error caused two voters in Cleveland's west side to be turned away and asked to return, according to John Fababe, an onsite technician. The problem was fixed by 7:45 a.m., he said.