McKinney alleges voting irregularities

[Stephanie]

McKinney

By Carlos Campos | Tuesday, August 8, 2006, 08:17 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Shortly after the polls opened on Tuesday, allegations of voting irregularities began appearing on U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s campaign Web site.

At 8:14 a.m., the first complaint appeared: “Less than an hour into voting, McKinney’s name is not on ballot, opponent’s is,” read an item on her blog.

Other similar allegations would follow throughout the day as 4th Congressional District voters decided whether to send McKinney back to Congress, or give the Democratic nomination to runoff opponent, Hank Johnson, a lawyer and former DeKalb County commissioner.

The McKinney Web site noted voting machines not working or mysteriously casting incorrect ballots, “insecure” voting equipment, police harassment, and poll workers refusing to hand out Democratic ballots. (If that last statement were true, then they couldn't vote for ANYONE :duh3:

At one campaign stop Tuesday, McKinney said, “We also had a problem at Midway [elementary school polling place], where my name was not on the ballot,” McKinney said.

“My opponent’s name was on the ballot. … We are disappointed that the secretary of state’s office has not dealt adequately with these electronic voting machines and the deficiencties. Also, polling places have opened up and some of the machines were not zero-counted out. … And that is a problem. That is a serious problem.”

Dana Elder, the precinct manager at the school, said there was a power failure around 2:20 p.m. affecting one machine that lists registered voters in the precinct, but it posed no problem because there was another backup machine. The broken machine was fixed within 10 minutes and did not affect the actual voting machines, Elder said.

“It was really nothing,” Elder said.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office kept an eye on the elections, with 15 roving monitors on the ground in the 4th District, said spokeswoman Kara Sinkule.

Sinkule noted that the complaints were only coming from the McKinney campaign. “We are not having voters saying we are having equipment malfunctions,” Sinkule said.

McKinney has always held a distrust of the state’s new touch-screen voting machines. She has appeared at events promoted by activists opposed to electronic voting in Georgia. One of her congressional aides, Richard Searcy, was one of the most outspoken critics of Georgia’s electronic voting platform before taking a job in McKinney’s office.

When McKinney beat out five opponents in the Democratic primary in 2004 to re-claim her congressional seat, she did not question the voting machines’ accuracy or the results. On Tuesday, she was anything but silent on the issue.

“Voters should be able to go into the precinct with the assurance that their vote is actually going to be cast, first of all, and counted,” McKinney said Tuesday. “But at this point we have had voters to tell us the voting machines took several tries before they would actually even cast the correct ballots.”

McKinney made other claims about voting problems but did not elaborate or take questions before disappearing into a truck.

Both local and state elections officials said they are taking McKinney’s allegations seriously. But they were also quick to say many of the complaints were unwarranted.The DeKalb County elections office released a statement addressing complaints from the McKinney campaign.

In answer to an allegation that a voter tried to vote for McKinney, but the machine popped up a vote for Johnson, the office said:

“Upon investigation by the manager, it was determined while the one candidates’s name was touched by the ball of the finger, the fingernail hit the name,” the statement read. “We do not expect voters to cut their nails to vote, but we are cautioning everyone to make certain they are satisfied with their choices before they hit the ‘cast ballot’ button.”

“We don’t have a problem addressing any claims that they have,” said Linda Lattimore, head of elections for DeKalb County, where much of the 4th Congressional District lies. “We’ll investigate and respond to each claim.”

The statement from Lattimore’s office addressed other issues raised by the McKinney campaign, claiming they were immediately rectified when brought to officials’ attention.

Some voters who wanted to vote in the runoff did not realize congressional lines were redrawn by the state Legislature in 2005, Lattimore said. So some voters accustomed to voting in the 4th District were perplexed at not being able to do so.

Lattimore said some voters who were told to wait while a poll worker investigated a problem misinterpreted it as being turned away from the polls. “We ask a voter to wait a second and suddenly [they think] we turn them away.”

Staff writers Jeremy Redmon and Julie Turkewitz contributed to this article.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/elections/entries/2006/08/08/mckinney_allege.html

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

Less than an hour? Boy, Florida could learn a thing or two from them. They don't waste time.

I wonder if this will turn into a competition. Next election they'll start making claims before the polls open, then the day before...

 

[Avatar4321]

They were making claims before the election in 2004 as well if i remember right.

In fact, I think we caught Street and Fast Eddie messing with the machines in PA.

 

[CSM]

Claims of "voting irregularities" has become standard practice...if it keeps up long enough, such claims will be ignored as just another part of American voting processes. How many times can you cry wolf before the wolf eats you....according to the fable...three!

 

[red states rule]

I found this gem on the Lieberman race. There was a slip by the liebral media

http://newsbusters.org/node/6856#comment
AP: Lamont Speaks to 'Cheering Reporters'?
Posted by Tim Graham on August 9, 2006 - 08:28.
At NRO's Media Blog at midnight, night owl Kathryn Jean Lopez reported:

Let's not let Reuters steal all the headlines. From an AP dispatch on tonight's Connecticut primary:


"They call Connecticut the land of steady habits," a jubilant Lamont told cheering reporters. "Tonight we voted for a big change."

But K-Lo's Newsday link updated to remove the line. Was it a correction, or merely an "oops, said too much" boo-boo? The old story's still up in Philly.