Activists seek to extend Orleans voting hours
11/2/2004, 6:20 p.m. CT
By BRETT MARTEL
The Associated Press    

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Voting activists asked a judge Tuesday evening for an emergency order extending poll hours in New Orleans until 10 p.m. ? two hours past the standard closing time ? so that voters who were improperly denied access to electronic voting booths could have time to return and cast a full ballot. 
Bill Quigley, a lawyer for the Louisiana Election Protection Committee, said his group had received numerous complaints of poll commissioners wrongly applying federal and state rules governing the use of paper provisional ballots.

Quigley said that, in many instances, voters whose names appeared on the rolls but who were taking part in their first presidential election were told not to use the regular electronic voting booths. They were instructed to fill out provisional ballots, which did not include several state elections. Such ballots were only supposed to be used by those whose names could not be found on the roles or the Secretary of State's master list.

"There's a tremendous misunderstanding (by poll workers) of what the provisional ballot is about," Quigley said. "First-time voters are being told they can only vote provisionally. We also have a number of complaints about people being denied the right to vote because they don't have drivers' licenses."

The lawsuit had not been was filed in the state's Civil District Court in New Orleans as of 6 p.m. However, Quigley said he had arranged with the clerk for an after-hours filing and hoped Judge Sidney Cates would rule well before the 8 p.m. deadline for closing the polling places.

Quigley said his group also had reports of machine malfunctions at dozens of precincts, including one case in which no one could vote until 9 a.m. He said all the problems combined were potentially "denying thousands of people the right to vote in New Orleans alone."

Most of the concern over voting troubles centered on New Orleans, where late delivery of machines for balloting on Sept. 18 forced a court-ordered replay of a juvenile court judge election.

Secretary of State Fox McKeithen did not seem to think the problems were truly as bad as those who complained made them sound.

"We are having a totally normal election and we think we have the best election system in the country," he said.

McKeithen said only six of New Orleans' 850 voting machines had mechanical problems on Tuesday, three of them because polling commissioners accidentally turned them off, meaning they could not be restarted. Replacement machines were delivered and voting continued as normal, he said.

McKeithen said his office received numerous reports of machines not working, but most turned out to be false. He blamed "roving bands of lawyers, Democrats and Republicans, all these interested parties."

"They start telling rumors, and that's the biggest problem we've had today is the rumors," McKeithen said.

Elections officials also went to the polls in Tangipahoa Parish to clear up confusion about provisional ballots.

Another potential problem was heavy rain that covered much of the state at one time or another Tuesday. Street flooding was reported in the New Orleans and Lake Charles areas. Still, lines were often long and the rain did not appear to deter many voters.

"That's what's surprising me," said Paulette Dartez, election director with the Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court's Office, where poll workers were busy.

Long lines of voters also formed in central and north Louisiana, despite heavy rain. In one Ouachita Parish precinct, 30 percent of the voters had cast ballots by 9 a.m., officials said.

Umbrella in hand, Ethel Noble, 82, was surprised at how many people already were in line when she arrived at her Ouachita Parish poll in the late morning.

"I had to drive around today looking for a place to park to go vote," Noble said. "I think everybody's voting today because they want to get the right man in office."