Long Lines & Some Snafus

Voters grappled with partisan challenges to their registrations, malfunctioning ballot machines and other headaches Tuesday as legions of lawyers, election-rights activists and computer scientists watched for signs of disenfranchisement.

Election officials in Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota fielded Republican complaints of MoveOn.org activists hovering too close to polling stations, charges the liberal group denied, while in Ohio, a woman sued on behalf of people who did not receive absentee ballots on time, asking that they be allowed to cast provisional ballots.

In Philadelphia, Republican activists claimed voting machines already had thousands of votes recorded on them when the polls opened. But city officials countered that the activists misunderstood numbers on odometers that record every vote ever cast — not just those for this election.

Overall, the problems were scattered, and there was no evidence of widespread disruptions by early afternoon on the East Coast.

"We know of no major meltdowns anywhere along the lines some people were worried about," said Doug Chapin, director of the Election Reform Information Project, a nonpartisan research group.

But in a close race, the reported long lines, machine problems and even dirty tricks could make a difference even if they do not affect most voters. Many of the problems could be chalked up to the sheer scale of voter interest in the race.

"The big challenge is we were clearly not prepared in this country to handle so many voters," said Chelie Pingree, president of Common Cause.

Tension was particularly high in some states were the race between President Bush and John Kerry was close.

Some college students in Colorado and Wisconsin had trouble voting because their current address did not match their registration address.

In Milwaukee, the tires of 30 vans Republicans had rented to help get out the vote were slashed. Republican spokesman Chris Lato said it was not clear who was responsible.

At one Cleveland polling place, a Democratic official claimed he was thrown out by a screaming poll judge before another told him he could return to the church basement.

Both parties had thousands of lawyers dispatched and on call to respond to trouble. In a decision early Tuesday, a federal appeals court cleared the way for political parties to challenge voters' eligibility at polling places throughout Ohio.

In Linn County, Iowa, a Republican poll watcher "was trying to challenge people for legitimately changing their address," said County Auditor Linda Langenberg.

A judge in Seminole County, Florida, meanwhile, granted an injunction sought by a Republican poll watcher who complained that Democrats were distributing flyers threatening party poll watchers with legal action if they challenged voters they didn't personally know.

In South Dakota, meanwhile, a federal judge partially granted Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle's request to limit the activities of Republican poll watchers after he accused the Republicans of intimidating American Indian voters.

Touch-screen voting machines, meanwhile, broke down in scattered precincts in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, New Jersey and elsewhere, in some cases forcing voters to switch to paper ballots. One was in Princeton, New Jersey, where Princeton University professor Ed Felten said machines had been left unguarded overnight.

"The danger is someone will come along and open up the machines and tamper with them somehow," he said, adding that he had no evidence that had happened.

In at least one Ohio county, several electronic voting machines had to be recalibrated after some voters complained that they displayed votes for Mr. Bush that had been intended for Kerry. It is not clear if any votes were lost.

Nearly one in three voters nationwide, including about half of those in Florida, were expected to cast ballots using the voting machines that computer scientists have criticized for their potential for software glitches, hacking and malfunctioning. The machines are similar to automatic teller machines.

Many problems with electronic voting — whether accidental or intentional — may not be known until well after Tuesday — if at all. Most of the machines, including all of Florida's, lack paper records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount.

Provisional ballots, new this presidential election, were another potential source of trouble.

A small number of voters who went to the wrong precinct in Pompano Beach, Florida, were given provisional ballots, which the county acknowledged was a mistake. In Florida, provisional ballots must be cast in a voter's exact precinct.

A federal law passed in response to the 2000 election mess required states to offer provisional, or backup, ballots to voters who find they are not listed on the rolls, or whose eligibility is somehow in question. The ballots are set aside and evaluated after the election — they could take 10 days or longer to resolve.

But states have interpreted the law differently, emphasizing the nation's lack of a unified voting system, the legacy of a patchwork of balloting technologies, regulations, partisan bickering and litigation. Also adding to the confusion were absentee ballots that arrived late or not at all.

There were also problems related to absentee ballots. Thousands were delayed going out in Florida's Broward County. In Lake Worth, Fla. some voters who had requested an absentee ballot for the August primary were at first denied the right to vote because a list indicated they had an absentee ballot for the general election as well.

There were also allegations of dirty tricks, like calls telling Hispanic households in Nevada that they could vote over the phone, a sign in Florida threatening arrest for anyone with outstanding parking tickets who tries to vote, and voters in Wisconsin told they cannot register on Election Day (they can).