Computer flub fixed for early voting

Many voters had been waiting an hour or more when workers at early voting sites around Pima County announced they could not connect to the main server to verify voter information. Because early voters go to one of 10 regional sites, workers must look up voter information in a computer to print the correct ballot with the appropriate local races, like legislative, county supervisor or justice of the peace contests.

Workers keep a small supply of pre-printed paper ballots for the precincts surrounding the early voting site. But they weren't enough to handle the demand, and many voters didn't know their precinct number to find the correct ballot.

After an information technology worker involved in another project Friday afternoon rebooted the same server that contains voter information, poll workers could not maintain a connection to the server.

Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez said the IT worker just wasn't thinking about the possible implications.

"My rule of thumb is never do anything during an election that could affect the election," she said.

Despite the mistake, Rodriguez said voters "absolutely" can have confidence in the election process. No votes were lost during the shut-down, and no votes could have been lost.

Votes cast on the touch-screen machine are stored within the machine, not on a central server, and votes cast on paper go into a locked box to be verified later. After verification, those ballots are sent to the Elections Division to be counted there.

The Recorder's Office maintains voter registration rolls, runs early voting, and verifies vote-by-mail, early and provisional ballots. The county Division of Elections runs the polls on Election Day and counts the votes.

Despite assurances, some voters said the problem undermined their confidence in the system.

Micha ne Lona, an acupuncturist, had been waiting more than an hour to vote Friday at Sacred Heart Church, 601 E. Fort Lowell Road, because she has patients to see on Tuesday. She was told the server was down and would not be fixed that night. Her precinct was not among those for which the poll workers had paper ballots.

She wasn't given a number to go to the front of the line Saturday, but when she returned to vote, she only waited about 15 minutes before voters who had been turned away Friday were asked to go to the front of the line.

Ne Lona said she understands that computer problems will happen, but she worries about people who might not have another opportunity to vote. She said early voting sites should have more paper ballots on hand.

And combined with the stories of voter problems and long lines in other states and in the last two presidential elections, the incident makes her nervous about the election.

"I just have a personal lack of confidence in this system," she said, referring to incidents across the country, not necessarily in Pima County. "I look at the blue ballot box and just think, 'Please get where you need to get.' I hesitate to mail it in, and I hesitate to early vote because I worry it won't get where it needs to go. But I can't vote Tuesday."

Laura Van Etten, who teaches at Pima Community College, shared some of those concerns. She said she would have waited all night Friday to cast her vote because she has so much work to do over the weekend, but workers told her she needed to come back.

Van Etten graded papers as she waited in line outside Sacred Heart Saturday morning.

"Not everyone will be able to come back, which is disturbing," she said. "It just gave me an ominous feeling. If my confidence before was at 5 percent, now it's zero."

But other voters just chalked it up to the vagaries of technology, which makes our lives miserable when it's not making them better.

Vernon Russell had been in line less than half an hour Friday at the YMCA at 7770 N. Shannon Road when workers announced computer problems. The problems didn't put him out too much. He went to the Y to work out Saturday morning, then walked down the hill to vote in the mobile unit set up in the parking lot.

As the long line wended slowly toward the door, he said he was voting early "to avoid the long lines."

Russell said the computer problems didn't affect his confidence in the election.

"Computers — and computer problems — are part of life," he said. "It happens."

High school students Alex V. Bieberstein and Joie Horwitz, voting in their first presidential election, waited nearly three hours Friday to vote before having to leave and come back.

The delays were annoying and surprising, they said, but the long lines have an upside.

"It's good to see that so many people are voting," Horwitz said.

emergency balloting

The Pima County Recorder's Office is open today and Monday for emergency voting. It's for people who didn't request an early ballot or vote at an early voting location, but now realize they won't be able to vote on Election Day.

Voters can cast an emergency ballot at the Recorder's Office, located in the Old Pima County Courthouse, 115 N. Church Ave., in Downtown Tucson. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Monday.

On Tuesday, Election Day, polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Anyone in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed vote. Every voter should have received a yellow card in the mail listing his or her polling place.