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Count machines { November 14 2000 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_city/20001114mcdonald1.asphttp://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_city/20001114mcdonald1.asp
Councilwoman charges voting irregularities in black precincts
Tuesday, November 14, 2000
By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
City Councilwoman Valerie McDonald yesterday called for an investigation of voting machine irregularities at polling places in Lincoln-Lemington, Homewood and the East Hills last week, saying machines in the city's 12th and 13th wards and other predominantly black neighborhoods were malfunctioning for much of Election Day.
McDonald said both machines at a Lincoln-Lemington polling place were out of service for the first three hours, driving away 50 voters. Several machines were in and out of service at 13th Ward polling places in Homewood and East Hills, smoking and spitting out jammed and crumpled paper and leaving poll workers to wait hours for repair by Allegheny County elections division workers.
In the 13th Ward -- where McDonald's father, Euzell "Bubby" Hairston, is the Democratic chairman -- delays seemed worse at polling places with usually high turnouts on Election Day, she said, such as the Kelly Street, Homewood House and East Hills high-rises.
Workers in the polling places "strongly felt that the machines were intentionally programmed incorrectly ... and were sabotaged," McDonald said in a letter to Elections Director Mark Wolosik.
McDonald asked Wolosik to check service records to see whether machines in predominantly black districts were repaired quickly enough and whether they were malfunctioning at a higher rate than those in other districts. She also asked for a meeting with Wolosik and 12th and 13th Ward leaders to discuss the malfunctions.
Wolosik said he took McDonald's allegations "very seriously" and his department will "look at addressing all her complaints best we can." But he said malfunctions are routine and happen throughout the 1,300 polling places countywide.
"We don't want problems on Election Day and we want it to be as smooth as possible, but no matter how you do it there's going to be problems," Wolosik said. "We have 6,500 people working twice a year at the polls who are basically paid volunteers, and there's human error involved."
McDonald introduced a council resolution yesterday asking the county to consider electronic balloting, rules to let more people use absentee or paper ballots, additional voting days and mandatory annual training for poll workers.
Electronic balloting would be expensive, Wolosik said, citing a county study saying a new voting computerized system would cost $12 million to $18 million. So would extra voting days: the six workers at each of the 1,300 districts are paid about $100 each for a 15-hour day, so it would cost about $780,000 for an extra voting day.
Poll workers are currently trained once per four-year term, he said.
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