Editorial,
Bucks County Courier Times, April 24, 2008
Confusion at the polls
Bucks County election officials had a ton of extra work leading up to Tuesday's primary. The
hard-fought battle for the Democratic presidential nomination has excited the nation and drawn many new voters into the political
process. What's more, scores of Republicans switched parties so they could vote in the Democratic primary, creating even more
work. Consider that Democrats out-registered Republicans in Bucks County for the first time in decades. And 62 percent of registered Democrats voted.
Clearly, folks at the Board of Elections were busy.
Still, there's no excuse for the kind of slip-ups and confusion that
plagued some voters Tuesday. Too many people were not notified of polling place changes. And too many poll workers were not
equipped with updated or accurate information, resulting in voters getting sent to several locations in a frustrating search
for the right polling place.
“I had to go to three different places before I got to vote,”
said Levittown resident Russell Long. “No one knew where I was supposed to be. It was just ridiculous.”
Sure was.
Look, we know county election officials didn't intentionally make a mess
of things — but make a mess they did. But you'd never know it from the reaction of Deena Dean, director of the Board
of Elections.
Dean said she wasn't aware of any significant problems and was adamant
that all voters had been properly notified of polling place changes. Nobody was missed, she insisted.
The dozens of phone calls we received at the newspaper as well as the
confusion our reporters observed at the polls tell a much different story. It's a story county officials need to get to the
bottom of before November when turnout could hit a record high.
Unlike the primary, which gave Republicans little reason to vote, the
general election will give members of both parties plenty of reason to go to the polls — if they can find them.
Article's URL:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/321-04242008-1524074.html
