Damp ballots cause a problem

RICHMOND — The voting machine of the future had some problems in the here and now.

Rain-soaked ballots clogged optical scanning voting machines in Chesterfield and Hampton Roads, causing backups of frustrated voters.

The biggest problems occurred early Tuesday in localities with optical-scan voting machines, which are used in 25 percent of the state’s polling places.

In Chesterfield County, where poll workers were overwhelmed by turnout in the Democratic presidential primary, at least two scan machines had to be replaced and others caused delays after being jammed with paper ballots dampened by voters coming in from the rain.

A move meant to relieve one polling place put strain on another in Chesterfield. Southside Baptist Church on Ironbridge Road, created by the split of Chippenham precinct to help Hening Elementary School, saw some of the longest lines in the county.

“It was total chaos and disaster,” said Linda Ely. “No planning, no organization and no help for the voters whatsoever.”

David Roy felt that he and other voters had no privacy after being given their paper ballot in line and told to fill it out. Precinct officers had some folders for voters to use to conceal their ballots, but Roy said there were only about a dozen to go around.

“I had to practically beat the woman down to get one from her,” said Roy, who was voting in Chesterfield for the first time. “They really screwed up.”

Chesterfield Registrar Lawrence C. Haake III said as of 4 p.m. nearly 100,000 or of the county’s 207,552 registered voters had cast ballots.

“All in all, this has been a good day,” Haake said. “There might have been some issues with lines and parking, but we knew there would be.”

Hanover County also had problems with its optical scanning machines, said Registrar Robert M. Ostergren.

Lines were longest at Pole Green Elementary School, where voters were allowed inside because of the rain, creating a confusing, zig-zagging pattern, Ostergren said.

“Yes, it took about 55 minutes to get into the school’s cafeteria from the outside, but once inside, it was mass confusion,” said voter Ray Alexander III. “There were lines literally everywhere.”

Richmond didn’t report equipment problems, but had its share of people issues.

The city got national press after the librarian at Ginter Park Library overslept and arrived five minutes after the polling place was supposed to open.

It opened almost a half-hour late, one of three late openings confirmed by state election officials.

Security at George Wythe High School had break up a fistfight between campaign workers outside of the poll there.

A woman flicked a lit cigarette at a police officer after she was found ineligible to vote at Whitcomb Court Recreation Room —she received a summons for littering.

Richmond Registrar J. Kirk Showalter said she had to remind a chief election official at one precinct not to ask voters who got their votes. “We don’t discuss that with voters,” she said.

George Mason University officials in Fairfax don’t know if any students or employees were duped by a fraudulent e-mail sent under the provost’s name early Tuesday morning.