A voter inserts his ballot into the “emergency” bin. If it had scanned correctly, the machine would have automatically deposited the ballot into a different box.
UPDATE: Some of the ballots are scanning properly at the Dumbarton polling place and some are not. Those that scan properly are inserted automatically into the box below the scanner. Those that don’t scan properly are manually inserted by the voter (see photo above) into a different slot that puts them into a separate box under the scanner.
At the end of the night, the unscanned ballots will be scanned under the supervision of the chief judges of the precinct, one of which is Republican and one Democrat, said Katie Brown, election director for Baltimore County.
The scanned and unscanned ballots “will not be co-mingled, they will be segregated,” said Chris Amberger, chief judge for precinct 904.1 (Dumbarton Middle School). He said they didn’t know why some were scanning properly and some were not. A new scanner was expected to arrive by noon.
I just got a report that the ballot scanners at Dumbarton Middle School are not working. An official at the Baltimore County Board of Elections said she had not heard of any problems at polling stations, but the person answering the phone said she had received many calls about it.
People at both the state and county board of elections said that if a scanner isn’t working, the ballots will be saved in an “emergency bin” and will be scanned later today, either at the original polling place after the ballots have been repaired, or at another site.
Have you had issues at the polls today?
The scanner rejected my ballot at about 1:00. The emergency bin was so full that part of my ballot was sticking out. Couldn’t get it pushed in all the way. A bit disconcerting.
Yeah, mine got passed around and VIEW by everyone running the the booths. Then told I need to vote for 3 people, not 2. I said actually it’s my right to vote for who I want. Then I had to fill out a second ballot, because my ballot was defective. He most unorganized and violating vote I have ever done. Thanks for violating my right and vote. Glad it got passed around for eyes that didn’t concern. There were no second scanners.
I agree! When I exited and got my “I Voted” sticker, I wondered, “did I?” More then a little disconcerting.
Ridge Ruxton also having trouble with scanner. I placed my ballot in the box and was told it would be counted by hand.
JUST left DMS… My ballot was not successfully scanned and was placed in the emergency box. However the emergency box was the same box that even the successfully scanned ballots were being placed in.. So, I’m confused!!
Thanks for the info. I just went over to DMS to ask about this. The post has been updated with new information. (Your ballot was put into separate compartment within the scanner, officials say.)
Hey all … I was there for the opening this morning, and was surprised that the scanners weren’t working, right from the beginning. There were some people who were upset, ‘this shouldn’t be happening’ type of comments, but the poll workers were trying their best to help everyone. Thanks poll workers!!
We were told the ballots would be counted later. I can’t say if they got the scanners to work yet, obviously since I left after voting, but it would be nice to get feedback if anyone does go to vote there and they see the scanner working again.
Everything was working at RFES around 8:40 this morning…