Officials scramble after fire destroys vote machines (TX)

[ccharles000]

A fire that destroyed nearly all Harris County's electronic voting machines Friday has election officials scrambling to re-equip the county for an election in which early voting starts in just 51 days.

Even before the pre-dawn fire was out, County Clerk Beverly Kaufman pledged to hold a "timely election" on Nov. 2 but suggested the county may have to run fewer than its planned 739 Election Day polling stations if it cannot find enough machines.

Because she does not know how many machines will be available for each polling location, Kaufman started appealing almost immediately to voters to cast their ballots early to help avoid long lines on Election Day.

Early voting begins Oct. 18.

Harris County, with 1.9 million registered voters who account for nearly 15 percent of the state's electorate, must start from scratch to rebuild an elections infrastructure just over two months before a gubernatorial election.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7173960.html

[shraby]

1. Whassamatter with paper ballots to fill the gap?

[JBoy]

2. County leaders met at the paper and pencil factory to discuss the problem

but could not figure a way out.

[Blue Meany]

3. I'm sure it is just a coincidence that this is a majority Democratic

county with a large Hispanic population, where there has been a major voter registration campaign underway, and where there also has been a right-wing "voter fraud" campaign saying that the fate of the state and country may swing on vote fraud in the country. Yeah, just coincidence. And I'm sure the Republicans in neighboring counties happy to help out by loaning a few voting machines so that there don't have to few voting places and long lines.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. What's even worse than the loss of the machines

is the loss of all the pre-programmed Republican votes.

[KansDem]

5. What?!! No magic "18181" this time?

Who won by 18181 votes in 2002 election?
DANNY SCHEEL (Texas): 18,181 votes (Comol County)
CARTER CASTEEL (Texas): 18,181 votes (Comol Country)
JEFF WENTWORTH (Texas): 18,181 votes (Comol County)
CANDICE MILLER (Michigan): 18,181 Votes (Lapeer County)
MICHAEL SMIGIEL (Maryland): 18,181 Votes (St. Anne's)
All five won and all five Republicans.

DU Thread from 2004