County Supervisor Calls For Investigation
Electronic Election Starts Out With Glitch

POSTED: 3:26 pm PST March 3, 2004
UPDATED: 4:45 pm PST March 3, 2004
SAN DIEGO At least one county supervisor and some activists called for an investigation Wednesday to figure out what went wrong with the touch-screen voting system on Election Day.

The early morning glitch delayed some precincts Tuesday and kept some people from voting, 10 News reported.

Officials, as well as voters, are wondering how it happened, why it happened and who is to blame.

San Diego County spent several million dollars on more than 10,000 Diebold touch-screen voting machines. Extra technicians were on hand Tuesday and extra phone lines were installed to handle any problems. But, the voting snafu was not anticipated, according 10News.

For most voters, the touch-screen voting experience was surprisingly nice.

"It wasn't as hard as I thought would be," one voter told 10News.

"I think it was a better system," said another voter.

But the system got off to a rough start when poll workers faced a computer screen they had never seen before.

"I called in and talked to the troubleshooter and he had me up and running in a few seconds," said one poll worker.

However, County Supervisor Bill Horn is outraged by the glitch.

"We have a responsibility to be open at 7 in the morning," said Horn.

He said that even a couple lost hours are too many. Horn asked fellow supervisors to direct the county chief administrative officer to conduct an investigation into what happened and make recommendations.

"I think we need to have an explanation so this never happens again," Horn said.

Leaders from the American Civil Liberties Union are equally troubled, 10News reported.

County spokesman Michael Workmans said, "Knowing that we had an election coming up, the county intended to do an immediate, in-depth study on how it went. We've done that every year for at least 25 years. This election review started last night and we hope to have a preliminary report by the beginning of next week so that we and Diebold, and anyone else who needs to act, can get started now."

The Republican party also called for an investigation. They said it is the job of the county supervisors to look into any problems and assure the voters it won't happen again.