Election officials: Voting machine, paper ballot problems resolved (SC)

MICHAEL WELLES SHAPIRO    Island Packet   23 October 2008

All absentee ballots cast using machines at the Hilton Head Island and Beaufort elections offices have been counted, Beaufort County elections officials said Wednesday.

County Elections and Voter Registration director Agnes Garvin said the county machines were working properly and counting residents' votes as they should.

"We're already hearing that there's problems with the machines ... which is just not so," said Garvin. "The machines are performing as they're supposed to perform."

She attributed questions about the machines to a software limitation that affects the screen voters use to review their choices before casting their ballot.

In most races, voters pick a single candidate John McCain or Barack Obama, for example and that candidate's name appears on the final review screen.

However, in the races for Bluffton Town and Beaufort City councils, voters can choose up to two candidates. In those cases, the machine shows voters only that they've picked the correct number of candidates without showing the candidates' names, according to Eric Montgomery, a county election equipment specialist.

Montgomery said he tested the machines and confirmed votes were accurate.

Garvin said she also has instructed polling place managers to explain the review screen's function to voters.

That explanation didn't satisfy Bluffton's Nancy Roe, who, with her husband, Bill, attempted to vote absentee ballot by machine in the island office Friday. The couple cast paper ballots.

"I just can't feel comfortable when the screen comes up and doesn't show who you're voting for," she said Wednesday.

Montgomery said the county will ask if the machines can be programmed to show candidate names for multi-seat races on the review screen in elections beyond this year's contest.

"I think it's something we'll solve," he said.

PAPER BALLOT ISSUES

Garvin also said problems involving a number of mail-in absentee ballots sent out without proper instructions have been resolved.

Elections workers were slow to proofread the paper ballots, she said, meaning some of the ballots were sent out without instructions on how many candidates voters could vote for in multi-seat races.

Garvin estimated Monday her office had mailed 79 of these problematic ballots, with 36 going to Beaufort voters, 10 to Bluffton voters, 32 to Hilton Head voters and one to a Fripp Island voter.

But Wednesday, she said only six ballots without the instructions had reached voters in Bluffton and Beaufort. She said her initial figure mistakenly included ballots that in fact had the instructions.

She said her office is trying to determine how many Hilton Head voters might have received ballots with missing information.

Garvin said her office has contacted all six of the Bluffton and Beaufort voters to ensure they fill out the ballots correctly.