The Buck Must Stop With Linda Lamone - if the problems are to truly solved This is a long read which documents Maryland's Election problems starting with the purchase of the Diebold voting machines. Even when these machines proved to be an expensive mistake that continues to become more expensive, Ms. Lamone had to defend her purchase - or look foolish. Maryland has a very expensive voting system that requires everything to go perfect - there is no backup, there is no contingency plan. As long as Ms. Lamone buries her head in the sand or continues to play the "blame game", Maryland's election problems will only get worse.
Connecting Maryland's Election Debacle Dots This election was truly a sad litany of one screwup after another. I wanted to show the events that unfolded during the Maryland primary, the helplessness of the election workers put in an impossible situation, the continued incompetence and blindness of Linda Lamone that caused the problems, and the tone deafness of Lamone and Diebold apologists who refused to listen to good (computer scientists) advice. Had the Maryland State senate passed the legislation to require verified voting, and had the Board of Elections purchased optical scanners instead of Electronic poll books, this mess would not have happened. But Lamone dug her heels in, the State Senate shielded her, and a report written by Glenn Newkirk of InfoSentry was used to further bolster Lamone's argument to keep the paperless machines.
Maryland's Election Debacle and Linda Lamone's Hall of Shame September 12, 2006. Maryland's primary a disaster!
In spite of the long hours of many dedicated poll workers, Maryland has again embarrassed itself. Poll workers, election officials, election rovers - found themselves in over their heads without a life preserver.
On election day poll workers found themselves scrambling for emergency paper ballots for voter to use - because the high priced, "high tech" voting machines crashed, shut down, or flat out couldn't be started up.
What went wrong?
-Many voters went to the polls only to find locked doors. -Polls across the state opened late due to missing equipment or missing poll workers. -Many voting machine technical 'rovers' hired were temporary workers hired from a Monster.Com ad. -Blind voters found that they still could not vote unassisted, the expensive -Once again, "high tech" voting machines failed in the promise to Help America Vote Act
. Avi Rubin describes his day working at the polls IN MARYLAND, and the disaster that the new e-poll books caused:
Tuesday, September 12, 2006 My day at the polls - Maryland primary '06 I don't know where to start. This primary today is the third election that I have worked as an election judge.
Fox news says that some voters were given photo copied ballots
Near the bottom - Maryland Judge Orders Some Polls to Stay Open Late After Glitches Tuesday, September 12, 2006
'William Pierce of Silver Spring said officials at his polling place were offering Democrats photocopied ballots. But since the single page official ballot is longer than the standard sized piece of paper, the copied versions ran on several pages, making it difficult to tell which candidates were running for which office. Fox News
Voters casting ballots after regular hours got provisional ballots:
Maryland Board of Elections' website says that voters who vote after 8 p.m. will have to cast a provisional ballot "according to federal law."
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