CLEARFIELD – The rule of General Election 2006 in Clearfield County seemed to be that the more voting machines a precinct had, the fewer problems were experienced.
In Treasure Lake where 10 voting terminals are in place, no issues came up with the county’s new electronic voting machines. In places such as Third Ward in Clearfield Borough and Penn Township, problems were encountered early in the day that necessitated some people being turned away early on election day.
The question remains about what will happen for those who were not able to vote. Not because they were not registered or could not produce proper identification, but because when they first arrived at the polls they were turned away due to machine malfunctions. Then, due to other commitments, they were not able to return at a later time.
Asked after the results were tallied in Clearfield County, Clearfield County Commissioner Rex Read said the election board did not have much time to think about those who were unable to vote at the polls Tuesday.
“We were really wrapped up in its entirety (Tuesday) with getting the rest of the election off smoothly.”
But, if you were one of those who had to get to work and wouldn’t make it back to vote before the 8 p.m. close of polls, know that the election board is checking into the matter and hopes to prevent such problems next time.
“We’ll look at the rest of those situations and use whatever we get as a learning experience for the future,” Read said.
Read said that this election marked the second time the machines were ever used to vote and the first time they were used exclusively in an election. In May, voters had the option to use paper or electronic balloting.
“There will always be some nature of a glitch somewhere,” he said, noting that even the paper ballots were not free of malfunction.
Most of the problems encountered with paper ballots were issues in counting them, something that did not affect the voter at the polls. In other locations in the U.S., items such as the now-infamous hanging chad on punch cards hung up counting.
“In the best planning you have to expect some (problems),” Read said.
He noted that even with all of the planning, some issues were unforeseen.
“I think we did underestimate a little bit what happened (Tuesday) morning.” Staffers and others rushed to locations around the county to attempt to get things running as quickly as possible.
GantDaily will keep you updated on what voters who could not cast ballots should do as information is available.
“From what I understand, there were a very very small number who ran into the scenario where they had to go to work and wouldn’t be back in time,” Read said.
