Few problems reported early in elections statewide
Associated Press   06 November 2007

NDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Officials in Marion County reported fewer election problems today than they encountered during the May primary election.

Three precincts opened late, just a fraction of Marion County's 917 precincts.

A mistake in the voter rolls affected 483 voters in 14 precincts, officials said. Those voters went to their polling places but were told they were not on the rolls.

Poll workers instructed them to go elsewhere, but they could not vote at those locations either. Officials were working with poll workers to correct the problem.

There were also problems with some touch-screen voting machines, so paper ballots were used in those polling places until the machines were fixed.

Marion County Clerk Beth White said this morning that the elections seem to be going better than the primary.

Voting elsewhere in the state also seemed to be going relatively smoothly, officials reported.

In Anderson, federal officials were on site monitoring elections after more than 20 people filed election fraud and accessibility complaints from the May primary. An attorney from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division was on hand to monitor voting.

All voting sites in Madison County opened on time, said County Clerk Ludy Watkins. Some voting machines were set to the wrong time, a problem that was easily fixed, and some poll workers needed clarification on their duties.

In Lafayette, some residents who went to cast ballots found they were not on the rolls. Tippecanoe County Clerk Linda Phillips said there was apparently a voter registration drive earlier this year — but the person conducting the drive never gave the information to county officials.

The Indiana secretary of state's office has teams throughout the state to guard against fraud.