Thread: SC: AIM Voting problems widespread in Horry County, official

Posted on Sat, Jan. 19, 2008

AIM Voting problems widespread in
Horry County, officials say
Operator error blamed

Did you have trouble voting in today's GOP primary? E-mail us. Please include your name and phone number.The problem with 80 to 90 percent of voting machines that did not work this morning was due to operator error, said officials with the S.C. Election Commission.

Horry County did not reset voting machines after they were tested, state Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said. He said at 2 p.m. the agency was still trying to find out how many machines and precincts were affected.

There was nothing wrong with the system or its software, Whitmire said.

``It's a human error of procedure not being followed correctly that led to the situation today,'' he said.

The machines won't allow votes to occur if they have not been reset after the test, he said.

``That's what it is supposed to do.''

He also said that if the machines don't work, the poll managers should give people the backup paper ballots, the fail-safe ballots and pieces of paper, even a paper towel if necessary, to vote on.

``No voter should ever be turned away,'' Whitmire said. ``That's a training issue.''

Precincts are supposed to have enough paper ballots for 10 percent of their registered voters, and fail-safe ballots for 5 percent.

That is to allow for times for the machines to be fixed or someone to bring more ballots. If there are no more ballots, poll managers have the power to go out and buy notebook paper or anything necessary to allow people to vote, Whitmire said.

The situation has not occurred anywhere else in the state, he also said.

About 80 to 90 percent of the election machines in Horry County had malfunctioned early this morning, said spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier.

There are about 300 machines or more in the county, Bourcier said.

As of about 4:30 p.m. all but four precincts had their machines back up and running.

Voters started turning up at precincts about 7 a.m. this morning to cast their ballots in the U.S. Presidential Republican Primary and the machine problems were noticed about 8 a.m.

Voters were then directed to use paper ballots. At at least one polling site, paper ballots ran out and voters used scraps of paper.

Voters at Lakewood Elementary School were asked to leave their names and phone numbers so they could be called back to vote.

Marie VanMeter of Surfside Beach said she was asked for her information. She said poll workers did call her back, and she was able to return to her precinct to vote.

The Horry County Elections Office is in contact with the S.C. Election Commission.

But all ballots count, even those written on paper ballots and those written on scaps of paper, Bourcier said.

All precincts are open and will remain open until the polls close at 7 p.m.

S.C. GOP chairman Katon Dawson said his party is “confident we are going to have full and fair elections all over South Carolina.â€

AIM Voting machine issues dog Horry County
By Staff and wire reports
COLUMBIA, S.C. --South Carolina polls closed today as campaign officials decided not to ask for an extension of voting in Horry County, which had significant problems with voting machines in its 118 precincts.

McCain campaign officials pondered legal action to extend voting, but the polls closed as scheduled. McCain carried Horry and Georgetown counties by wide margins in 2000 over George Bush.

As many as 90 percent of the electronic voting machines in Horry County did not work correctly when polls opened in Saturday morning's Republican primary. Most were up and running by noon, county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said, and the last were fixed by 5:30 p.m.

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the full impact of bad weather in the Upstate and voting machine problems in Horry County on GOP voter turnout remained to be seen.

State Election Commission spokesman Garry Baum said all precincts are supposed to have emergency paper ballots in case of machine failure. Thus, he said, no one should have been turned away because of voting machine problems. Spokesman Chris Whitmire said voters could use almost anything - "a napkin, a paper towel" - on which they could write the name of a candidate and put it in a ballot box.

“Emergency paper ballots are part of the election,â€