Salem learns from election glitches

Shortage of ballots, long lines greeted voters on Nov. 4

By Anne Trautner

Staff Writer

A large voter turnout, combined with a series of technology breakdowns, resulted in a shortage of ballots during the Nov. 4 election in the Town of Salem.

“We just don’t usually run out of ballots. I was just amazed,” Town Clerk Cindi Ernest said. “Most of it was because we did not anticipate this large of a turnout, and we anticipated being able to use the machines, which broke down.”

A record 4,165 Salem voters came out to vote in last week’s gubernatorial election. For the last governor’s race in 2010, there were only 3,398 voters. The recall election in 2011 brought out 2,569 Salem voters.

About 2,800 ballots had been ordered for the town. Typically, 300 to 400 people vote on touch-screen machines, Ernest said.

Unfortunately, three of the eight machines the town used broke down.

So, Ernest photocopied ballots, which poll workers hand counted.

“We asked the county for some printed ballots, which could feed into the machine, and apparently their printer was down also,” Ernest said. “So it was just a comedy of errors.”

Salem ended up being 278 ballots short in its town hall polling site, Ernest said. Salem’s other polling site, which is in the Wilmot Fire Station, had some ballots left over, she said.

“Everybody voted. It just took them a little longer than they probably wanted it to,” Ernest said.

 

Long lines

Ballots ran out around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. By about 5:30 p.m., the problem was resolved, Ernest said.

People were then standing in line for about 15 to 20 minutes, she said. That’s about how long people stood in line to vote in the presidential election in 2012, Ernest said.

“For the most part, they were understanding. They kind of looked at it like if they were in Milwaukee, they would be standing in line a lot longer,” Ernest said.

Part of that wait was due to voter registrations. There were 329 new voter registrations for last week’s election, Ernest said. Most of those new voters registered on Tuesday, which caused longer waits for voters, Ernest said.

“We truly did not anticipate that much of a turnout because originally were calling for a small turnout,” Ernest said.

Ernest said she had her theories as to what brought voters out.

“I think people are just tired of the way things are going. I think what brought it up too is we had a referendum on our ballot for ATVs on certain roads,” Ernest said.

The referendum did not pass.

There was also confusion among some voters as far as whether they should show identification, Ernest said.

“A lot of them insisted in showing their photo I.D. even though they were told it was not needed,” she said.

 

The machines

Salem started out with eight voting machines, four at the Wilmot Fire Station and four at the Town Hall.

As the day wore on, there was one point where they were down to three at the fire station and two at the town hall, Ernest said.

Six of the touch-screen machines belong to Salem; the other two had been leased for the election, Ernest said.

The town’s machines are about 18 years old, Ernest said.

“They are quite old, and we have had a lot of problems. In fact, we did send them off for maintenance over the summer, and we didn’t have any problems with them during the primary election. But they decided this was time,” Ernest said.

Some of the older voters were hesitant to use the machines at first, Ernest said.

“They were not very trusting of computers,” Ernest said. “We kind of walk them through the process, and once they are taught that, they really like being able to just be able to touch the screen and not have to write on the ballot. So we really have a lot of people that do use them, especially at our Wilmot polling station. And I have got some great poll workers that really work closely with people and show them how to do it.”

Now, Salem is in the process of purchasing 12 new machines. The town is coordinating with the county and some other municipalities to get a break on the price, Ernest said.

“Generally the machines run between $6,000 and $7,000 apiece, and so it’s a huge expense,” Ernest said.

The final cost should be between $80,000 and $100,000, she said.

The first payment has been budgeted for, and then the town will finance the rest over a three- to five-year period, Ernest said.

The new machines should help future elections to run more efficiently, Ernest said.

“We try our best to have fair and open elections. Sometimes things happen like that, unfortunately. Going forward, we hope that we can be a little smoother and quicker,” Ernest said.


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