Problems With Voting Machines And Polling Reported In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida

Problems with voting machines and polling were reported on Election Day across the country, including an instance where a machine lit up for Republican Mitt Romney when a voter chose to cast a ballot for President Barack Obama.

Colorado

Local news stations are reporting that the Colorado Secretary of State’s office is conducting an investigation into reports that voting machines switched Romney votes to Obama. Republican officials in Pueblo County said they have heard of more than 12 reports of such problems, according to KRDO.com.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania officials told the Associated Press that the machine that switched an Obama vote to Romney was recalibrated and is now back in service. There was also reported “widespread” confusion over voter ID requirements in the state. Last month, a Pennsylvania judge blocked the state from implementing its voter ID law in time for the 2012 election.

The York County Democratic chairman also had to apologize for volunteers sending voters to the wrong place.

“Last evening, some well-intentioned volunteers working on the president’s campaign went out canvassing and they took the wrong stack of flyers for the neighborhood they were canvassing in,” Bob Kefauver told Penn Live.

Ohio

County election officials rejected volunteers with the Tea Party-affiliated True the Vote group as potential poll watchers on Tuesday because of improper filings. The Columbus Dispatch reported that most of the candidates supporting the group’s local branch, Voter Integrity Project, withdrew their backing. The group reportedly wanted watchers in neighborhoods that were mainly African-American.

Florida

Automatic calls from supervisors of elections mistakenly called voters in Pinellas County on Tuesday morning, informing them they had until 7 p.m. the following day to vote when polls actually close 7 p.m. that same day. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the calls were a result of a glitch in the phone system and were intended to go out to hundreds and potentially thousands of voters on Monday.

Florida’s long ballot also resulted in long early-voter lines on Monday.

District of Columbia

It was similar situation to Florida in D.C. when a Democratic committee made automated calls to voters saying the election was going on until Wednesday. The DCist reported the party chairwoman said the mistake resulted from a Chicago-based vendor using an earlier recorded script intended for a small number of calls made on Tuesday.

Election officials also told the AP that while many complaints to a voter protection hotline were about long lines, there were some calls about more serious disruptions among the approximately 70,000 they received.