Forgotten, wet ballots slow down voting in North Carolina
Raleigh, NC (CNN) – A soggy and delayed start to the voting day in a Raleigh, North Carolina, precinct, after some confusion at the polling station. Wake County Board of Elections director Cherie Poucher reported there were problems this morning at the Barwell Road Community Center (formerly the Ebenezer Church Road precinct). She confirmed that the chief judge forgot to take the ballots out of her grandson's truck when being dropped off this morning. The elections director says the truck drove away, and the judge wasn't able to track down her grandson. The Board of Elections delivered new ballots and voting began at 7:06am, 36 minutes behind schedule. Approximately 300 people were waiting in line.
"When the board meets today, I expect that they will vote to keep the precinct open an additional 36 minutes," Poucher added.
Rain has also been a factor this morning in Wake County, North Carolina. Soaking voters dripped water onto their ballots as they were filling them out, causing problems for the optical scanners.
"When we put the ballot through the scanner it is soggy and doesn't go through," Poucher said. "One ripped and got stuck when the voter tried to get it out." The scanner then had to be taken out of service.
Poucher said voters with soggy ballots were being asked to deposit them in the emergency ballot box. When they are dried and the scanners are back up and running, the ballots will be put through the optical scanners, the official added.
Poucher said that voters will not be inconvenienced because of this situation.
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As an African American man I must say that I believe this will be the single greatest day in American History. I also strongly feel that it will go a long way in severing the racial divide in this country.
The US is no longer the world's greatest democracy. Its voting process is in crisis and a laughing stock around th world!
CLINTON DEMOCRATS FOR MCCAIN!!
THE HILLARY FACTORY WILL PREVAIL!!
In this great Country of ours, it would seem reasonable to expect voter machines to work or an alternate means of voting. Everyone knew months ago that this would be a record year so no excuses there. I
do believe that we should all ask our congressmen for some kind of legislation to prevent these things from happening.
I think everyone that had a hand in setting these things up should be looking for a job doing something else, Yes i mean fired on the spot, this is so critical.
This is the reason why we wanted everyone to vote early. I hope we don't get the election stolen again like we did in 2000 and 2004. I'm staying prayerful.
VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!
Obama/Biden
PLEASE GO VOTE FOR McCAIN AND SAVE THE COUNTRY FROM THIS MADNESS
Is any of this happening in 'non-battleground' states?
Pray that those soggy ballots don't disappear!
Very suspious that these things are happening in Red States that are on the verge of turning blue, hmmmm! Florida!?
we can hold our heads up...we as americans have come a long way
Wao! how could the chief Judge forget? quite shady.
I am praing for Senator Obama to win. We need him for America and the world, especially in this troubling time.
Let's all write to our Congress members to have Election Day declared a national holiday in the future. We need to eliminate every obstacle to voting that we can. People should not have to take a day off work and possibly lose pay because they want to vote. Here in Atlanta, there is no public school on election day so parents have to take their kids to the polling place or try to find a sitter. Spread the word and let's start a movement to have a National Holiday on the first Tuesday in November every four years!
How does this happen in 2008?!!!!!!!!!!!
Because of the fixed ballot machines they should keep the polls opened 4 more hours to allow all of the citizens to vote. This is OUR TIME (USA) This is OUR MOMENT. GOD IS WITH THE USA AND WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS. OBAMA WINS!!!!!
I voted in winston salem northcarolina this morning and there were no long lines at 7:30 am, I was voter 206 although no major problems
there were a couple of times the machine would not read this maybe a problem as the day progress.
Haven't we seen this somewhere before?
You would think by now tha after the last 2 elections we would have invested some money in to voting machines. Why can't we have one voting system through out the country that works all the same...we have one IRS and Equifax and it seems to work.
How can America want the rest of the world to have voting rights and we can't even get it right in our own country???
funny all the reported issues are in tight "swing" states..makes you question what is going on.
Can we get electronic voting system? This shouldn be his difficult.
what? ballots left in a truck that drove away? soggy ballots and a malfunctioning scanner?
seriously? someone's having a bad day.
reads like a really bad SNL skit or a really good MadTV...
I live in NC and had no trouble voting this morning. Probably took about half an hour. Yes, it's been raining all night! But it's a 'soft rain' and relatively warm. NOT an excuse!
Obama '08
Why are problems only happening in Swing states?! Disgusting!
This is the first election in which I got to vote in NC after living in CA and NJ previously. I voted early 2 weeks ago – and even though the lines were long, I thought they did a great job.
I am confident that NC will ensure that any problems are handled quickly.
I'm voting in Bowie,MD. got here at 6:30 still in line at 9:20. looks like another 1.5 hrs