Voters report isolated problems with new scanners

Optical scan voting made its general election debut on Long Island Tuesday without the election meltdown many had predicted, but some voters reported problems keeping their ballots confidential and encountered malfunctioning machines.

In Nassau County, Democratic Election Commissioner William Biamonte said there were dozens of reports of scanners with mechanical problems. He said 10 of the county's 1,063 scanners in use had to be replaced, causing voting delays.

"It's extremely frustrating," Biamonte said. "When you have one machine down, it can create so much chaos."

Suffolk County had scattered reports of trouble, but problems were fixed in the field, said assistant election commissioner Ivan Young. He said none of the county's 1,047 scanners had to be replaced.

"Generally speaking, it went fine," he said. "I really believe that in Suffolk we have had a smooth transition to the new machines.

New York City saw a few glitches, but nothing like those on primary day, Sept. 14, when the machines were first used statewide. At the time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted city election officials for a "royal screwup," but Tuesday said he had a smooth experience.

On Long Island, voters' main complaint was concern about ballot privacy. Voters were expected to place marked ballots in a privacy sleeve. Voters then were to feed the top edge of the ballot directly into the scanner, which automatically pulls it from the sleeve. At several locations, voters said there were no sleeves, while at others, poll workers didn't explain how to use them.

"Obviously, this is not a secret ballot," said Kim Kleppel, 75, who with her husband Noel went to vote at Lawrence Middle School. Kleppel, of Lawrence, said there were no privacy sleeves at the polling place, just legal folders. And she was upset to see poll workers handle completed ballots as they helped voters with the process.

Victoria Schneider, 37, was one of many voters who faced a broken scanner. She filled out her ballot at the Jackson Avenue Elementary School in Mineola, but poll workers told her that the machine was jammed. She dropped the ballot in a locked bin under the machine and was told all such ballots would be scanned after polls closed and the machine was fixed.

"So even though my name is not on it, someone else is physically handling my vote later," she said. "It's ridiculous."

Votes cast at polling places where machines were broken were to be counted last night after machines were repaired, either at the polling place or at the Board of Elections with bipartisan witnesses present.

Such experiences appeared to be exceptions, and many voters said they were fans of the new machines. "It was fabulous - very, very smooth," said Lois DePalma, 65, who voted near her home in Woodbury.

With Sophia Chang

and Joie Tyrrell