High turnout in Alb.; wacky date in Char.
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The day has finally come. It’s election day. With Allen and Webb remaining neck and neck until the bitter end, one will finally be named the victor.
Virginians are turning out in droves to vote in a race that could help determine the majority party in the Senate. According to Albemarle County’s most recent press release, 45.75 percent of total registered voters have already visited the polls by 4pm.
The Associated Press reports that Virginia election officials called the FBI after several voters complained about getting phone messages that sent them to the wrong precincts. Elsewhere in the country, programming errors and inexperience with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers and in some cases forced them to turn to paper ballots, according to the AP.
After voting at the Recreation Center downtown, Laura Parsons (who is the Hook’s art critic) noticed that the date on her ballot was off by a week: November 14. The issue was fixed before Parsons left the Recreation Center.
“It was very weird, and it was the only time it has happened,” says Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta says.
Despite concerns some voters may have about the electronic voting machines, the eSlate machines available today have been used in Charlottesville since 2002.
“I have not received any complaints, and I’m very happy about that,” Iachetta says.
However, not every voter does shares Iachetta’s confidence. “It makes me nervous” Parsons says.
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That’s not quite what happened. Between checking-in with the new drivers’ license scanning technology and exchanging that ticket for the voter code chit, I realized the date was off. I had not yet voted, so I waited for the technician to arrive and then I re-checked in to vote. Because the check-in count and the ballot count must match, I was wary. It may have been nothing, but… pretty strange it jumped a week all of a sudden.
[...] A general sense of caution seems to have descended over certain parts of the voting populace, with Hook art critic Laura Parsons reporting an unsettling typo on the ballots this past November and absentee voter Andrew Devereux drawing attention to a goofy set of instructions before the 2004 elections. Through it all, however, registrar Sheri Iachetta has remained confident in the Charlottesville ’s spin-wheel system. [...]