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Ballot confusion reported in DeKalb County
Posted at: Tuesday, March 2, 2004, 04:58 PM
Some DeKalb County voters complained they didn’t get to vote in the Democratic presidential primary, said DeKalb Democratic Party chairman Don Brothers.
Brothers said he raised the issue with state election officials after hearing about it from the Kerry campaign. He commended both state and DeKalb election officials for swiftly spreading word to poll managers to try to help voters avoid getting the wrong electronic ballot.
Linda Lattimore, DeKalb’s election supervisor, said DeKalb election workers try to avoid problems by allowing voters to choose for themselves which application to fill out. And she said notices are posted at each voting machine advising voters to stop touching the screen if they suspect a problem.
“Don’t just keep hitting around on the machine,” she advised. A poll manager can cancel any ballot and get a new one — until the voter hits the last button to cast the ballot. After that, the vote can’t be changed.
“We couldn’t go in the ballot box before and get it out, and we can’t go in that machine and get it out,” she said.
Brothers said he blamed the problems on the uniqueness of having a special election coincide with a presidential primary. He took a swipe at Republicans for engineering the timing: “They did it because George W. didn’t want this flag issue on the general election ballot.”
DeKalb reporter David Simpson
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