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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

November 07, 2006

Scattered Voting Glitches Reported in Many States

Posted at 4:41 PM ET by Steve Coogan

Voting problems have cropped up all over the country. Most notably, voters in the Denver area have been held up since the polls opened at 7 a.m. Computer problems at the voter check-in stations bogged down [the process], creating a bottleneck in the first hour of voting as a rush to the polls overloaded the system," the Denver Post reported. Democratic Party leaders were seeking a two-hour extension of voting in the area. Power failures in some locations have also created delays. In addition, an AP story cites a spokeswoman for the secretary of state who says the 14 proposals on this year's ballot are helping to cause the congestion.

Tennessee's Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. said that voting stations in Memphis and Jackson were shut down when he went to polls this morning. "We've already leveled one [challenge] on behalf of voters who have been told they'd have to wait until later today to vote," Ford said.

Unfortunately, the problems don't end there. Local reports in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also states with influential Senate elections, experienced some glitches.

In Chicago, NBC's affiliate has posted an online page where citizens can vent about the various problems they've had trying to get out to the polls. About her polling station, which apparently had a malfunctioning computer, one reader wrote:

"It is a sad state of affairs when we spend MILLIONS of dollars on these fiascos in the 21st century. The computer programmers at the place where I work could write a good, reliable, and CORRECTLY FUNCTIONING program in their SLEEP."

Finally, local coverage reported some early voting problems in Broward County, Fla., a state that doesn't need any more bad voting publicity after the 2000 debacle. But overall, it appears all is well in that state.


The staff of U.S. News & World Report are live in Washington watching the results roll in. Silla Brush is at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters and Will Sullivan is reporting from the Republican National Congressional Committee headquarters. Ken Walsh and Dan Gilgoff are in the U.S. News offices, while Michael Barone is live nationally on Fox television and Gloria Borger is live on CBS.

U.S. News photographers are also dispatched around the nation, filing photos live to our photo gallery.

Our hour-by-hour guide to tonight's key races will help you find the bellwethers throughout the nation.

As the numbers roll in, if you have anecdotes to report or questions about the returns that you'd like us to address, please email electionresults @ usnews.com.

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