Mid-Day Report the 2006 Mid-term report
typed at 11:31 PM
Posted at 12:16 PM

this is midday election report
From Detroit, MI

Almost all the morning voting is almost done so there is about eight hours to go in voteing so if you have not done so vote right now, be cause i knpw all hel is going to break loose at 8 PM EST.

in Michigan the home stae for this blog sight no problum to report so far ecpect a item in the free press this the Michigan Republicans were crying foul over a polling place opend up 5 mintues late (link Here)

But just the last electiopn in 2004 there are problue

From Daily Kos:

From ABC News

Programming errors and inexperience with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana and Ohio and leaving some in Florida with little choice but use paper ballots instead.

In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn't get to start properly.

"We got five machines one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.

In Indiana's Marion County, about 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper because poll workers didn't know how to run the machines, said Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler. She said it could take most of the day to fix all of the machine-related issues.

Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts there. Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly.

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In Indiana, there were widespread voting machine problems this morning, the bulk of which seem to have been repaired. However, there was a substantial delay and the state Democratic Party is seeking to extend polling hours. It looks like state officials are indeed going to court now to request an extension in polling place hours, but whether it will be a one or two or three hour extension remains to be seen.

from Talkingpointsmemo.com

Election day in Denver began with long lines, as computer problems appeared to make it difficult for workers at vote centers to check registrations against the master list.

By 8 a.m., lines stretched up to a city block at places like the Colorado Convention Center, Corona Presbyterian Church and Denver Botanic Gardens.

At the Convention Center, though 100 people stood in line, only 25 percent of the voting machines were in use at any given time, as poll workers tried to get verification of voter registration from computers that were frequently down.

Dejected downtown workers attempting to vote before work could be seen walking away from the polls as the line barely moved.

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Poll monitors encountered countywide problems with voting machines in Allegheny County, where machines were not working and there was a lack of paper or provisional ballots—long lines resulted, with some voters leaving polling places without voting. EP officials were following up with election officials to resolve the problems. Additional voting machine-related delays were reported in Philadelphia and in Lebanon County.

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EP volunteers and the EP hotline received widespread [reports] of voting machine problems leading to delays, as well as problems with confusion implementing the state’s photo ID requirement. Additionally, one polling place opened late because of an overnight break in. A local TV station aired footage of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s battle with an optical scan voting machine, which repeatedly rejected her ballot.

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Franklin County's phone system was returned to service about 90 minutes after it collapsed today under a crush of calls from voters and poll workers.
The volume of calls “overwhelmed the system,” Franklin County Elections Director Matthew Damschroder said.

Phones returned to normal about 9:30 a.m. The system also went down during the May 2 primary, delaying final returns until 2 a.m.

Damschroder said the system could not handle the quantity of calls from voters needing help to figure out where to vote and from poll workers needing help figuring out how to set up new electronic machines.

Polls opened at 6:30 today with relatively short lines but glitches at several polling places

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From Chicagoland, TPM Reader MS reports:

I live in Arlington Heights, IL, outside of Chicago. I'm in Mark Kirk's House District. This morning none of the electronic voting machines were working. Therefore the wait to vote was around 30 minutes, since they were using paper ballots.
As an aside, on the table next to the election judges was a box of donuts from the Republican Party of Wheeling Township, thanking the election judges for their service. Democray (and bribery) in action

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Sullivan County, Tennessee, where TPM Reader SJ tried to vote:

Went to my precinct to vote and all 3 machines were not working. This precinct has a lot of lower-income families and public housing. They finally got one of the machines going, but the lines were out the door - I waited close to an hour and had to get to work. I wasn't the only one - most of those leaving were young(er) working people more likely to vote Democratic. I'll be coming back later to vote, but how many of those that left will be able to do that? You would think the machines would have at least been tested and working before the actual election day.

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From TPM Reader EL in Florida:

Just in case you're keeping tabs, I wanted to tell you that my wife tried to vote in our precinct in Tampa and was not on the list. After several tries to find out why, she was told that the voter database was "cleaned" and there must have been a mistake. I'm trying to find out who "cleaned" it.

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Similar problems in Hamilton County to those reported in Summit County. Even though my partner changed his registration to our new address and even though he voted in the same precinct last election with no problem, because his driver's license had our old address, the pollworkers forced him to vote a provisional ballot. This precinct is smack dab in the middle of the congressional district where . . . Jean Schmidt should lose to Victoria Wulsin, but turnout will matter. The lines were long, with people standing in the rain, and the pollworkers seemed ill equipped to handle the process. Could be a long day in Ohio again.

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Real-time reporting of election-related problems can be found here. Scroll down and click on the U.S. map. You will be able to view by state and county. Ohio jumps out already this morning with numerous reports of problems in the largest counties. The site seems to be getting a lot of traffic and is slow to load.

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TPM Reader AM checks in from Ohio:

Reporting from Summit County, where we use optical scan machines: my husband and I were in line at 6:30 a.m. when the polls opened so we were the 14th & 15th people in our precinct (8-C) to vote. Unfortunately, the optical scanner wouldn't accept any ballots. I hung around until 7:30 a.m. to see if they got it working and when I left it was still down. Of course, it took all 4 of the octogenarians staffing the precinct table to try to "fix" the problem so the line was backed up out the door & into the parking lot, where voters were treated to a light morning drizzle.
Sure hope my vote gets counted. And I hope not too many people had to bail out of the line in order to make it to their jobs on time.

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so the scerw job is in already in
so i encouarge you not to give up

i got a post on myspace from member of the detroit band "i, Crime" Vocals, Guitar JENNIE KNAGGS remind us to vote, be cause if you dont some things bad will happend

Even tho it looks like the repubs will lose, (and even tho our voting system totally sux), Engler won in the 90's when dems, certain of a victory, didn't come out to the polls. and we all know what happened after that....

the poll opend untill 8 PM EST were will get the 1st exit polls

both Channel 4 and channel 7 are doing all day webcasting both station are coming good the big drawback a single camera shot if you ha problum voting today call channel 4 at 1-866-MYVOTE1 (1-866-698-6831) or these Numbers
1-866-OUR VOTE (1-866-687-8683) (website here)
1-888-DEMVOTE (1-888-336-8683) (DNC hotline)
1-888-SAV-VOTE (1-888-728-8683)(voting machine problems)

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The weather outside the detroit tri-country area yuck
update at noon
Fox 2 - Rain 46°F
Local 4 - Rain 47°
Ch.7 action news - Rain 45
Weather Channel - Rain 48

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More to come