Clarke County clerk addresses voting issues

Number codes entered incorrectly in two precincts
By Brian Livingston / staff Writer    The Meridian Star   09 August 2007

For many people who worked voting poll locations or who were in charge of the voting process in eastern Mississippi Tuesday, a wish for the days of paper ballots and pencils may have crossed their minds once or twice.

“The way things are right now with the automated voting machines and the training needed for poll workers to correctly operate them, it becomes a chain of information for this process to work flawlessly,” said Clarke County Circuit Clerk Beth Jordan Wednesday afternoon. “If one link in the chain breaks, then that can create a problem.”

During the day-long voting Tuesday, Jena Thompson, campaign manager for House Dist. 84 front runner C.D. Smith, said her candidate’s name was not showing up on Republican ballots at two Clarke County precincts. Even though Thompson hoped the problems at Pachuta and the Scout Hut precincts were isolated incidents, she couldn’t help but wonder how many votes it cost the Smith camp.

Wednesday, Jordan said although the voting machines at the two locations, just as they are at all other precincts, were tested and re-tested to ensure they were working properly, human error can still cause a problem such as this.

“There are number codes the poll workers have to enter into the machines,” said Jordan. “We learned early on that the codes at these two locations were wrong and that some candidates names weren’t showing up. We quickly rectified the problem.”

Jordan said there are multiple ballot styles depending on the candidate’s party affiliation, what district they would be running for. It is up to the poll worker to enter the correct codes to display the correct ballot for the voter.

“We had nine training sessions this year alone to make sure all the poll workers knew how to operate the machines,” said Jordan. “But still sometimes mistakes are going to be made.”

Overall, Jordan said Clarke County had to endure very few problems during Election Day.