Arkansas Blog: It's Charlie's fault

So says Jim Lagrone about scattered reports of early voting problems, particularly with the cursed electronic machines. Release on jump. (I'm surprised he didn't blame the liberal, vet-hating media too.)

JIM LAGRONE NEWS RELEASE

LITTLE ROCK – (Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006) – Despite some media reports to the contrary, voters in numerous counties throughout Arkansas continue to be plagued with a plethora of problems at the polls during the two week early voting period.

Whether it’s “fat fingers” that cause someone to cast a vote for the wrong candidate, or no paper ballots in precincts where the electronic voting machines don’t work, voters have reported leaving polling sites angry and confused.

“I had a voter from Jacksonville call me to say that he and his wife tried to vote for me (on different machines) four different times but each time they selected my name, my opponent’s name popped up on the touch screen,” says Jim Lagrone, Republican candidate for Arkansas Secretary of State. “On the fifth try, it finally worked for both of them. When the husband called to complain, he was told that if his fingers were too fat, it could have caused him to keep hitting the wrong name – how ridiculous is that?” On inquiry, election officials told the Lagrone campaign that this was a “sensitivity” issue with the screens on the electronic machines, and was easily fixed by sending someone out to recalibrate the machines.

“I’m glad they got it fixed but what will they do on Election Day if numerous other machines across the state don’t register votes right because someone’s fingers are too fat, nails are too long or, for whatever reason, the screens are too sensitive?”

Voting problems stemming from electronic machine malfunctions, ballots programmed wrong and paper ballots printed incorrectly are occurring across the state, says Lagrone.
Complaints of problems have come to Lagrone from a number of counties in the last two weeks, including Benton, Carroll, Craighead, Garland, Greene, Jefferson, Miller, Pulaski, Sebastian, Scott and Washington counties, to name a few.

“We’ve been receiving calls and emails daily since early voting began from people telling us about their experiences trying to vote early,” says Lagrone. You can scarcely pick up a newspaper or turn on your television without hearing about some election voting problem. Yet, every story seems to end with some type of statement implying that the problems experienced were minor and everything seems to be working fine now.

“If everything’s working so well with the touch screens,” says Lagrone. “Why did KTHV report last week that 60 percent of voters, when given the choice, are asking for paper ballots?

“Let me be clear – I think our election commissioners and county clerks are just making heroic efforts to deal with the current state of affairs and I applaud their efforts. Every election commissioner and every county clerk in
Arkansas is doing the best they can but the fact is, our election system in Arkansas is broken – from top to bottom - and needs to be fixed,” says Lagrone.

“I’ve studied our election system all year and have come to the conclusion that a major issue is a total lack of communication from the Secretary of State’s office to ES&S and back to election commissioners, the very people who are in charge of the elections.

In order to make our election process work, contends Lagrone, there needs to be a consistent and organized communication plan. “Daniels, his office and ES&S did not communicate well to election officials during the primary,” says Lagrone.
“He knew this was a major problem, yet didn’t make any effort to solve the communication problems for the general election, and here we are right back where we were during the primary – knee deep in an election quagmire.”

Lagrone points to an incident last week in Texarkana as a good example of the breakdown in communication. “The Texarkana Gazette reported last week that an election commissioner for over five years resigned his post because ‘employees of the company providing the voting machines and software are grossly incompetent, mean-spirited and can’t spell ,’” says Lagrone.
“Charlie Daniels and his hand-selected election company continue to run off good people versus working hard to cultivate good relationships for now and future elections.

“Charlie Daniels is the one who hand-picked ES&S,” reminds Lagrone. “Yet when problems arise he blames everyone but himself. How many missteps by this company does it take before Mr. Daniels’ recognizes we have a problem? And how many people’s future will be negatively and irreversibly affected because the integrity of our votes cannot be assured in this election cycle?

“Charlie Daniels recently told the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he wants credit for his accomplishments,” says Lagrone. “That’s fine. But if you take credit for accomplishments, you must also step up to the plate and take responsibility for failures – and he’s just not doing it. He wants all the credit and none of the blame.”

Comments

Voted for Beebe, Snyder, McDaniels, et al this weekend in Faulkner County...had no issues whatsoever.

Posted by: RazorbackDem | November 1, 2006 05:20 PM

LaGrone is a joke, but we all know who decided to buy these machines. If he's not to blame, then who is?

Posted by: AB | November 1, 2006 05:20 PM

Yeah, there was never any federal law that funded buying electronic voting machines produced by Republican led companies, Diebold and ES&S. And the law did not have any implementation deadline like April 29, 2003 for certification of GSA payments for new machines or January 1, 2006 to comply with the law. And there are multiple companies making electronic voting machines besides ES&S and Diebold. And the CEO if Diebold did not pledge himself to re-electing George Bush through any means.

The name of the federal law that wasn't is the Help America Vote Act of 2002, Public Law 07-252.

http://www.fec.gov/hava/law_ext.txt

Come on CCRRR's and Bushites spin that Republican passed law that wasn't.

Posted by: docholliday | November 1, 2006 08:31 PM

Well, spit.
I ranted and raved about this a week or so ago. I don't care if a voter is selecting Republican OR Democrat, the machines are pure D awful. While I did not call LaGrone's office, I did report the irregularities I experienced to the PUCO election commission. I want a paper ballot and I so want Charlie Daniels and the PUCO Election Commission to eat each and every electronic machine they purchased with the software as dessert. What a waste of my money.

Posted by: Curious | November 1, 2006 09:05 PM

Come on boys and girls.... this ain't politics it's project management 101....

Fact is Charlie had years to get the machines and software in and test it.... instead he put someone in charge of the project who by her own admission "is not a technical person", tehn waited till the last minute to sign the contract (Jan 20006) for the machines.

If he had assigned a real technical project manager to the project, done a little research on other states efforts, and made the initial purchases a few years ago we would not be in this mess now.

Other states have been using optical scan ballots for 15+ years now. They have worked out most of the major issues, have a hand recount ability, and a paper trail. What seems to be our delima? Why did we not mandate that all counties install the most accurate for of electronic counting (optical scan).

Ultimately the man at the top of the SOS office is responsible......

Oh... and why does Arkansas have this issue with everything... why can't we look around at other states, determine what is working the best and go with it...... This "I'm gonna do it my way no matter what!" attitude is killing our state.... ie education... ie Health Departmant....ie.......

Posted by: TeddyRepub | November 1, 2006 09:17 PM

My spelling in the last post is a little off.... I'm a little tired and my fingers couldn't keep up with my brain...

Spell check was made for people like me......lol

Posted by: TeddyRepub | November 1, 2006 09:22 PM

I went to vote, and had no problems whatsoever. But, something strange DID happen...

I went in to vote for Democrats. But when I looked at the voting screen a voice in my head said "What's the difference between an Arkansas Democrat and an Arkansas Republican?" At that point I had no answer.

So, I voted mostly for the Green Party...swear to God. I've never done anything like that, ever. I wonder how many others will feel the same way?

Posted by: spunkrat | November 1, 2006 10:06 PM

I hope not many, Spunkrat, because those votes are wasted.

Posted by: BlueRidge | November 1, 2006 11:19 PM

They are not wasted votes Blueridge IF the Greens get 3% of votes which automatically gets them a place on the ballot and in future debates.
There are problems with machines all over the nation. Don't expect much to be decided by Nov 8. The vote count and lawsuits could go on till Jan 07.

The reason the bidding wasn't let out for machines earlier is that Sec. Daniels was waiting for more bids to come in and they didn't.

This is just one-more neo-con case of incompetence just like Iraq, Katrina, Alaskan bridge to nowhere.
At least with HAVA not too many will lose their lives.
_

Posted by: Lwood | November 2, 2006 12:58 AM

While docholliday thought he
was being sarcastic in his
first paragraph, it is actually
true.

HAVA DID NOT MANDATE
THAT ELECTRONIC VOTING
MACHINES.

If you want to comment on
something, at least find out
the facts. The link is great but
perhaps you should read the
entire bill.

And I'm a Democrat not a
Republican, but I know the
facts. There are many voting
machine companies.
Accupoll was not even
allowed to be considered so
don't claim other companies
were not interested.
Mistakes were made but
Lagrone is not the solution.
I'm voing for Charile even
though he's made some
mistakes. We will get these
mistakes corrected eventually.

Posted by: The Bold and The Blue | November 2, 2006 02:36 AM

The votes are not wasted at all.

I'm not voting for an idiot simply because they have a (D) after their name.

We need a third party on the ballot, and if A$a wins blame the culture of this state and its embrace of racism, not people who did the morally correct thing.

Posted by: FormerlyKnownAs... | November 2, 2006 08:04 AM

if you had voting problems why would you call Lagrone to complain? what can he do about it?
After he lied about his son being in Iraq I really can't believe anything he says. the R's missed a golden opportunity. Out of all the offices CD was the most beatable but they had to run that guy. what a joke.

Posted by: Martin Kove | November 2, 2006 08:46 AM

The Bold and the Blue,

You are right. HAVA funds could have purchased more optical scanners, but the disability requirements are difficult to meet without some electronic voting machines in all precincts. Also, I doubt that many of our election officials are computer-savvy enought to recognize the potential for vote tampering.

I have used an electronic voting machine once, when I voted early and there wasn't a paper ballot available at the poll. I support a state act to require optical scanners and manually countable paper ballots for all Arkansas elections.

Thanks for reading it all TB&B.

Posted by: docholliday | November 2, 2006 07:52 PM

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Interviews-Features/Article/default.aspx?posting=%7B2ACA466C-E81E-4888-B8D3-F23CC3F35200%7D

Try this for more on voting machine fraud potential

Posted by: docholliday | November 2, 2006 11:43 PM

"Also, I doubt that many of our election officials are computer-savvy enough to recognize the potential for vote tampering."

It only takes one. But you better
be more concerned by the electronic
voting machine companies that
program them. They can program
them to tally the votes anyway they
want.

Also a vote stealing program could be
written that would work on all voting machines.
All someone would have to do is
make copies and have someone
copy it to each machine. That would take a matter of seconds.

Posted by: The Bold and The Blue | November 3, 2006 12:28 AM

I'm so sick of hypocritical nut-job Lagrone bitching about voters getting "disenfranchised." Even he knows he's full of shit. Know what I think is disenfranshisment? Trying to scare voters away from the polls with rumors about faulty machines because you know they are voting for your opponent!

Posted by: BlueStateofMind | November 3, 2006 04:03 PM

Posted by: BlueStateofMind | November 3, 2006 04:04 PM

Posted by: BlueStateofMind | November 3, 2006 04:05 PM

Arkansas Blog

It's Charlie's fault

Comments

Post a comment