A truck careening into a polling place on Election Day? Minor setback, said Anne Arundel County Elections Director Barbara Fisher.
A truck smashed into a county fire station doubling as a polling place early Tuesday morning, knocking out electricity. But the county quickly provided a back-up generator and the polls opened on time, she said.
“I?m bored,” Fisher joked midday. “It?s been a very, calm, smooth, quiet day.”
Even with heavy voter turnout, election officials across the region reported polling conditions opposite the calamity of September?s primary. State officials credited the improvements to mandatory re-training sessions for election judges in Baltimore City and rewired electronic check-in books.
A handful of polls opened 10 to 15 minutes late, said Ross Goldstein, deputy administer of Maryland?s Board of Elections, but the state largely avoided equipment issues.
“We?re pretty pleased,” Goldstein said. “Things are going nicely.”
In Harford and Howard counties, complaints appeared to be limited to long lines. Problems elsewhere were isolated: One voter said a judge denied him a paper ballot at the Riverside Elementary polling center in Baltimore County?s Lansdowne. Poll books appeared skewed in Anne Arundel County?s Arnold, causing some voters to inadvertently cast ballots for District 1 Rep. Wayne Gilchrest when they intended to select Democratic challenger Jim Corwin.
Voters turning in absentee ballots at polls ? too late to count ? proved more troublesome than technical glitches, said Carroll County Board of Elections worker Della Dell.
In Baltimore City, where 72 percent of precincts opened late by as much as three hours during the primary election, 96 percent opened on time at 7 a.m. Tuesday. The rest opened by 8 a.m., according to city election officials.
Mary Washington, manager of the election judge training project at the University of Baltimore?s Schaefer Center for Public Policy, was visiting city polls to assist with troubleshooting Tuesday.
She said the school trained and retrained 3,000 judges ? recruited from local colleges, bar associations and city and state employees ? in the past 2 1/2 weeks and reported few problems.
“We really replenished the work force,” Washington said. “We interjected some new energy. That?s what was needed.”
Examiner staff writers Stephen Janis, Kelsey Volkmann and Capital News Service reporter Erin Bryand contributed to this report.
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
