Another electronic voting machine screw-up

If you haven't been following the election in Prince George's County, Maryland, there's been another screw-up with Diebold electronic voting machines, and it's a big one. Here are some of the details. I've been following the play-by-play on this at MyDD:

Congressional candidate Donna Edwards announced plans yesterday to file a lawsuit over apparent voting irregularities in Tuesday's primary election in Prince George's County, while defeated county executive challenger Rushern L. Baker III demanded an independent investigation of the process.

The separate announcements signaled that Tuesday's voting, a flawed process by many accounts, may not conclude the close primary contests for a seat in Congress and the county executive's office. The election itself was "horrendous," the Prince George's elections administrator said yesterday. And the victorious Democratic county executive candidate, incumbent Jack B. Johnson, said it warranted investigation.

"The integrity of the election is at stake," said Edwards, who ran against Rep. Albert R. Wynn in the 4th District Democratic primary and is waiting for the race to be decided when provisional ballots are counted next week in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Jonathan S. Shurberg, a lawyer working with Edwards, said they will ask a judge to take possession of voting machine memory cards in two, possibly three, precincts in Chillum. The request will be made either in Prince George's Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro or U.S. District Court in Greenbelt over the next several days.

Edwards said her legal complaint will focus on the security of voting machines that contained voting cards and were not delivered to the county Board of Elections until late Wednesday. "When we read reports about how easy it is to hack into these machines, there has to be concern," Edwards said.

… Chuck Perry, a lawyer who advised Baker's campaign, said at a news conference yesterday that there is "ample evidence" to warrant an investigation.

Widespread problems occurred throughout the county, Perry said: Numerous polling places did not open as required at 7 a.m. Computers misidentified the party affiliation of voters. And voting machines failed to electronically transmit data to the county's central office.

… Electronic voting machine malfunctions were reported across the region Tuesday. Machines froze, access cards stopped working and computerized voter lists crashed. The glitches renewed fears about the vulnerability of electronic machines used in the electoral process.

…Results trickled in Tuesday night because election workers said they had trouble transmitting data electronically from precincts to the county's central tabulating office.

According to Baker's campaign, only 60 of 206 precincts managed to transmit their results electronically. Election workers at the remaining polling places had to remove voter memory cards from each machine and drive them to Board of Elections headquarters in Upper Marlboro.

…Antonetti [the elections' administrator] said that a number of cards were accidentally left in voting machines and that the last of those cards -- close to three dozen in as many machines -- were expected to be delivered to his office late yesterday. On Wednesday, election officials said data were not received from 81 of the county's 2,056 voting machines. The numbers represented two whole precincts -- in Chillum and Landover -- as well as cards from machines at 34 polling stations.

Although the machines have not been under guard, Antonetti said he is confident the cards have not been tampered with.