Voters Have Trouble At the Polls
Compiled by Staff
Voters in Ohio County who headed to the polls early today were greeted by long lines of fellow voters and delays with several voting machines.
At mid-morning Ohio County elections officials said the major complaint came from voters who said more machines should have been available.
Toni Chieffalo, elections coordinator for Ohio County said she was unaware of machine breaking down, but noted that election workers have to recalibrate the voting machine after every 10 or more voters.
"I haven't heard of any breakdowns," said said.
"Our poll workers were taught they need to calibrate all day long. After 10 or so voters, the machines go out of line. It takes two minutes to calibrate."
One voter reported that at her precinct at Woodsdale Elementary School, two voting machines were not working, creating a backlog for the 15 to 20 voters waiting in line. She said while voting officials worked to recalibrate the machines, the wait for voters in line extended to 30 to 40 minutes before the two working machines became available.
Voters at Woodsdale School were given pencils and told to use the eraser end to touch the electronic voting machine screen while making their selections on the ballot.
Another voter said she was "extremely upset" because she experienced a problem with the voting machine at her precinct located at the Poplar Avenue firehouse. She reported that her vote was not correctly recorded and became frustrated at having to repeat the process several times. That precinct also reported problems with two voting machines. Voters reportedly were lined up 20 to 30 deep by 8 a.m. Some voters left the polls without voting, saying they would attempt to vote on their lunch hour.
Several voters reported a problem with machines at the precinct located at Oglebay's ski lodge/Par III building. Voters reported that two machines "went down" during voting early today.
No problems were reported early today in East Ohio despite a steady and heavy flow of voters at local precincts.
Chieffalo said she had requested 10 more machines for Ohio County, but the request wasn't approved by the Secretary of State because the machines were slightly different
Polls will remain open until 7:30 p.m. today and anyone still waiting in line at that time will still be able to vote.
"Anybody in line at 7:30 will be given a waiting voters permit and will be able to vote. Voters just need to be patient," Chieffalo noted.
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gliderider
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11-04-08 11:26 PM
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well, on the bright side, at least there won't be any riots tonight...
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wvhoopie
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11-04-08 9:46 PM
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President Obama will be addressing the nation shortly. It is finally over Obama is our President
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kmd0302
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11-04-08 7:17 PM
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As my husband and I were waiting to vote today our 6 year old granddaughter told us about the vote they had in 1st grade yesterday between Elmo and Shreik and quite a few fellow voters said the 1st graders had a better choice than we do!!!!!!!!!
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NaNaof2
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11-04-08 6:06 PM
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I recently spoke with my son who voted at 6:30 a.m. at Christ United Methodist Church on National Road in Wheeling. He told me it was ridiculously hard to vote. He had a terrible time sith the voting machine not recording his vote. He also said it was terribly disorganized and he felt so sorry for the older people voting. He saw two older people almost trip over the wires stretched across the floor. He said the voters "checked in" and then nobody told them what to do next, they were on their own and just grabbed a voting machine when someone was done. He was quite disgusted with who many times he had to cancel out the vote the machine gave him so he could vote for the person HE intended to vote for. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN OHIO COUNTY?????????
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JMorgan
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11-04-08 5:42 PM
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Funny, I never see employees at McDonalds having to recalibrate their touch screen cash registers.
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Destroyallmonsters
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11-04-08 4:54 PM
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wiggy2008, get a grip, man. Polls haven't even closed yet. Thanks for enforcing the " a vote for McCain is a racist vote" memo that the Republicans are pounding home on the internet.
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wvufan
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11-04-08 4:45 PM
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I voted with one of these machiens today and had no problem neither did anyone else at the warwood school location. The line went smooth and I only waited maybe 5 minutes. These screens proabably do not need recalibrated every 10 uses, but because you often have very untechnical people running the polling places the state has told them this to ensure the machines are calibrated correctly. There are many factors that will not the machines callibration off including how hard someone presses. The pencil eraser idea was a good one and should help the problem. These machines do make for a quick voting and are much easier to use than the punch cards we use to use. This is not our first election with these machines you chould be use to them by now.
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wiggy2008
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11-04-08 4:34 PM
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West Virgina is now a proud part of the old south! My gggrandfather fought with the 4th Ohio to free West Va from the Confederates in 1861-2 and you people have just surrendered to the racism of the south--and betrayed your heritage.
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Destroyallmonsters
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11-04-08 3:56 PM
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No problem, I hadn't realized one of my posts were deleted. You know, since Gopdude still has all his posts still up. I think my rabble rousing has ****** off some of the staff of this paper.
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UNCOMMONSENSE
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11-04-08 3:40 PM
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As I previously stated, these machines have been stored in questionable conditions, cleaned with questionable solvents, exposed to who knows how many power surges, and managed by people who havn't got a CLUE as to how they operate!! They are NOT reliable, they are NOT faster, and they are CERTAINLY NOT less expensive!!! This is CLEARLY a case of attemting to MANAGE what election officials CLEARLY don't understand!!
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FireCN
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11-04-08 3:30 PM
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Just go back to the paper ballots! Just because some idiots in Florida could not get it right we all have to suffer from some other idiots idea that this is better and more efficient.
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UNCOMMONSENSE
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11-04-08 3:23 PM
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"The voting machines need recalibrated every 10 or so votes!!!!! COME ON PEOPLE!!!!! This is like saying your CAR needs a front end alignment every 10 or so miles!!!! Absolute JUNK!! Managed by absolute dingbats!!! This is Florida chad count all over again!!!
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Curtis24
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11-04-08 2:32 PM
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ktbass - lunch period is over. get ack to the class room and learn how to spell. Start off with "BELIEVE"
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tmoore
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11-04-08 1:55 PM
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Machines subleased from ACORN.
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GARDENIA
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11-04-08 1:46 PM
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Everyone had to use the pencil erasers at the Ohio County Courthouse for early voting too. What a marvelous, up-to-date state we all live in. Just fitting since we ALMOST ALWAYS vote for the looser in the State of WV! Hmmm, maybe that should tell us all something!
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Destroyallmonsters
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11-04-08 1:32 PM
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I cast my vote for most ignorant poster of this election for dmxem20011.
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HenryC
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11-04-08 12:28 PM
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They were probably made by Halliburton.
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Melvin
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11-04-08 11:44 AM
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These machines are absolutely poorly designed. But then, Congress took a billion of your tax dollars to buy these machines. Under no circumstances should you have to be recalibrating every 10 votes. If you are, it means the selection areas overlap too much, or the screens/software are not made to take any bumps. You can run pds's for weeks and not have to recalibrate the screen. One precinct used the eraser end of a pencil for voters to touch the screens...maybe they all should as a short term fix. The states and counties really didn't have to pay for these machines, federal tax dollars did, so it wasn't a rigorous evaluation and selection process.
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