YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES

Global Search
Friday February 10, 2012
« Wrong ballot means no chance to vote on school referendum
Complaint about unequal treatment, lack of privacy in Brooklyn Park »

A voting machine in Fridley that mangles ballots

Posted on November 4th, 2008 – 3:25 PM
By James Shiffer

Margaret Pidde had this to report about her voting experience at Woodcrest Elementary School in Fridley:

I arrived at about 7:45 am and was able to move through the line quite quickly, ready to insert my ballot into the reader at about 7:55. As I approached the machine the woman watching it had opened the side slot and told me that the machine was “jamming and folding” the ballots. So I slid my ballot into the side, not wanting it to be “folded and jammed”. I went out to catch a bus to my job in downtown Minneapolis about 8:00am - very good timing overall.

At about 9:15 after arriving at my office, I called the Anoka County Election Board and was told that it had been reported and it “was being worked on”.

I was very disappointed to encounter a broken ballet reader so early in the day. I hope it did not discourage anyone from voting! And I sure hope the ballots deposited in the side of the box were accurately counted already!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Election Day, Polling problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “A voting machine in Fridley that mangles ballots”

  1. The Shwamy Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    I would be very hesitant to put my ballot in the side of the machine. That’s where the “counted” votes go, and if it were not scanned, it was not counted.
    Now granted they could (and should) be planning to count them later, but who’s really to say what they do?

  2. Chris Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    “who’s really to say what they do?”

    They are there first and foremost to protect the integrity of the vote. To that end, they are there to watch each other!

    You’d hear about it if votes were being put somewhere and not counted–one of the poll workers would see to it.

  3. Tone Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    I voted in Fridley at the City Hall 3:15 and I was in and out in 10 minutes, counting the walk to my car. No Problems!

Subscribe to Whistleblower

Learn more about RSS

The Star Tribune investigates

Categories