Bloomberg News

E-Mail Votes Overwhelm Election Officials in Storm Zone

By Tim Jones, Michelle Jamrisko and Scott Moritz on November 06, 2012

Citizens in storm-ravaged New York and New Jersey wandered from poll to poll after officials moved more than 240 balloting sites and fretted over the integrity of a vote being conducted partly over the Internet.

Governments strained to allow voters to participate in the election despite damage from Hurricane Sandy. In New York City, where almost 60 polling places were moved, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was running election shuttles from stricken areas. In Long Island beach towns, residents emerged from the rubble to vote. And across New Jersey, county officials tried to cope with Republican Governor Chris Christie?s decision to let displaced residents submit ballots via e-mail or fax until 8 p.m.

?I have grave concerns about the security of what?s being sent to me electronically,? said Michael Harper, clerk of the Hudson County Board of Elections.

?It?s never been like this,? said Harper, 36, while sitting in his Jersey City office behind a desk strewn with paperwork and food plates. The ?mountain of paperwork? from e- mail ballot applications has resulted in a workload that?s ?physically impossible? for the office to handle, he said.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012 ... -in-storm-battered-region

Just got back from voting. After all my worrying and moaning it wound up being a very smooth and easy process. I was not asked to show ID, I was registered in their books and everything worked out, didn't take long at all. Worth the ferry/bike ride combo I took back to JC.

Please call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or go to http://www.866ourvote.org/ and report any issues you have voting. I was asked to show ID, but should not have been. This is not my first time voting, and there are no voter ID laws in NJ saying that I should have had to show ID (there is a federal law saying that if you just registered and didn't show ID or proof of address when you registered, you would have to when you vote for the first time). Thankfully, I have ID and was able to vote.

Quote:

Why did they offer the service to begin with if they knew it was going to be a "bad idea." There are probably tons of people not going to vote now because they are waiting on an electronic ballot.

Turns out I'm just going to go back to Lafayette to vote. I just heard my power came back on anyway.

their servers got overwhelmed after only 2,000 ballot requests? I knew they were going to get overwhelmed with requests and that there would be tons of problems, but only 2,000?

"It just shows electronic voting is a bad idea,? she said.

No, it shows that your systems suck and are probably 30 years old.

If you are an Obama supporter you can try the Obama for America "Gotta Vote" Voter Hotline: 1-800-311-VOTE . You leave a msg and they will call back.

i couldn't find voter assistance on the Romney site.

I picked this up on NJ.com:

If you have any news or want to report a problem with your voting experience, contact David Chmiel at dchmiel@nj.com

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey plans to file an emergency petition asking a state Superior Court judge to intervene because of problems with e-mail voting in Essex County.

"You've got people who are trying to utilize this e-mail or fax voting capabilities the state has said they are entitled to," said Alexander Shalom, policy counsel for the ACLU. "The counties are so overwhelmed with these requests, they are not able to reply. People have e-mailed in requests to get ballots and they are not hearing back."

Shalom said he is seeking a court order allowing people to write their votes on a blank piece of paper and submit them as absentee ballots. The ACLU has received about 25 complaints through phone calls and social media from people having trouble getting a ballot by e-mail statewide.

In Hudson County, officials also experienced widespread voting problems, according to Rutgers Law professor Penny Venetis.

?The servers are crashing because of the overwhelming request for electronic ballots," Venetis said. "People who shouldn?t be requesting them are requesting them."

The Hudson County Clerk's Office could not immediately be reached for comment. But Venetis said she heard of the problems through people calling various election help hotlines. Venetis said the Hudson County clerk had received 2,000 ballot requests before their servers crashed.

?It?s very, very problematic. It just shows electronic voting is a bad idea,? she said. ?In addition to it being very unsecure, the system cannot accommodate electronically-submitted ballots. Paper ballots are the way to go. We know those can be processed.?

Visit NJ.com throughout the day for more information as it becomes available.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey plans to file an emergency petition asking a state Superior Court judge to intervene because of problems with e-mail voting in Essex County.

"You've got people who are trying to utilize this e-mail or fax voting capabilities the state has said they are entitled to," said Alexander Shalom, policy counsel for the ACLU. "The counties are so overwhelmed with these requests, they are not able to reply. People have e-mailed in requests to get ballots and they are not hearing back."

Shalom said he is seeking a court order allowing people to write their votes on a blank piece of paper and submit them as absentee ballots. The ACLU has received about 25 complaints through phone calls and social media from people having trouble getting a ballot by e-mail statewide.

In Hudson County, officials also experienced widespread voting problems, according to Rutgers Law professor Penny Venetis.

?The servers are crashing because of the overwhelming request for electronic ballots," Venetis said. "People who shouldn?t be requesting them are requesting them."

The Hudson County Clerk's Office could not immediately be reached for comment. But Venetis said she heard of the problems through people calling various election help hotlines. Venetis said the Hudson County clerk had received 2,000 ballot requests before their servers crashed.

?It?s very, very problematic. It just shows electronic voting is a bad idea,? she said. ?In addition to it being very unsecure, the system cannot accommodate electronically-submitted ballots. Paper ballots are the way to go. We know those can be processed.?

Visit NJ.com throughout the day for more information as it becomes available.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey plans to file an emergency petition asking a state Superior Court judge to intervene because of problems with e-mail voting in Essex County.

"You've got people who are trying to utilize this e-mail or fax voting capabilities the state has said they are entitled to," said Alexander Shalom, policy counsel for the ACLU. "The counties are so overwhelmed with these requests, they are not able to reply. People have e-mailed in requests to get ballots and they are not hearing back."

Shalom said he is seeking a court order allowing people to write their votes on a blank piece of paper and submit them as absentee ballots. The ACLU has received about 25 complaints through phone calls and social media from people having trouble getting a ballot by e-mail statewide.

In Hudson County, officials also experienced widespread voting problems, according to Rutgers Law professor Penny Venetis.

?The servers are crashing because of the overwhelming request for electronic ballots," Venetis said. "People who shouldn?t be requesting them are requesting them."

The Hudson County Clerk's Office could not immediately be reached for comment. But Venetis said she heard of the problems through people calling various election help hotlines. Venetis said the Hudson County clerk had received 2,000 ballot requests before their servers crashed.

?It?s very, very problematic. It just shows electronic voting is a bad idea,? she said. ?In addition to it being very unsecure, the system cannot accommodate electronically-submitted ballots. Paper ballots are the way to go. We know those can be processed.?

Visit NJ.com throughout the day for more information as it becomes available.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey plans to file an emergency petition asking a state Superior Court judge to intervene because of problems with e-mail voting in Essex County.

"You've got people who are trying to utilize this e-mail or fax voting capabilities the state has said they are entitled to," said Alexander Shalom, policy counsel for the ACLU. "The counties are so overwhelmed with these requests, they are not able to reply. People have e-mailed in requests to get ballots and they are not hearing back."

Shalom said he is seeking a court order allowing people to write their votes on a blank piece of paper and submit them as absentee ballots. The ACLU has received about 25 complaints through phone calls and social media from people having trouble getting a ballot by e-mail statewide.

In Hudson County, officials also experienced widespread voting problems, according to Rutgers Law professor Penny Venetis.

?The servers are crashing because of the overwhelming request for electronic ballots," Venetis said. "People who shouldn?t be requesting them are requesting them."

The Hudson County Clerk's Office could not immediately be reached for comment. But Venetis said she heard of the problems through people calling various election help hotlines. Venetis said the Hudson County clerk had received 2,000 ballot requests before their servers crashed.

?It?s very, very problematic. It just shows electronic voting is a bad idea,? she said. ?In addition to it being very unsecure, the system cannot accommodate electronically-submitted ballots. Paper ballots are the way to go. We know those can be processed.?

Visit NJ.com throughout the day for more information as it becomes available.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... html#incart_river_default

Maybe this number can help:
If you have any questions regarding voting procedures please call 1-877-NJVOTER (1-877-658-6837).

Called Hudson Cty Clerk's office, got someone on the line and was told they were swamped and to try and "vote provisional wherever you are".

Called Virginia Board of Elections and after 18 minute wait was told flat out NO on trying to vote provisionally here.

So it appears I cannot vote in any election today, is this even legal and I can only imagine this same BS is happening to thousands of people. Unbelievable.

I have a question, if I were to go to Newport to vote via the PATH (much closer to me than Lafayette), do I need to show ID to vote? I still have a NY license (I know, I know) but I am registered in Jersey. Otherwise I would have to go back to my house to get my passport and I don't think I will make it in time after work. We can vote anywhere in Jersey City right?

How would that work? The polling site at NYC wouldn't have the Jersey City ballot, would they

This same thing happened to me. Just "recieved."

Wow. So they cancelled it...

I can vote in NYC then? I am here now. Will they let us?

I relocated to NYC during the outage and decided to take advantage of the vote by mail option recently offered by the clerk's office. The instructions on their website included mailing in a form to request to vote by mail. In turn, if approved, the clerk's office was to send instructions and a ballot.

I followed the instructions and last night, I rec'd a one word email from the clerk's office, "received." No ballot or instructions.

I called today and was told they canceled the email voting due to an overwhelming response. Why did I have to call to find this out? If they sent an email saying "received," they surely could have explained the option was canceled.

Upon calling the clerk's office today, I was told I can vote in NY (where I'm staying) as a provisional voter. Any voting booth.

I'm not voting, the first presidential election I'll miss and one of the few elections in 40 years I'm missing. I don't believe that my vote, that is, if NY lets me vote, will be counted and at this point, it's late and it would be a big inconvenience.

I'm stunned by these events.