Voting glitches elsewhere minimal in St. Mary’s

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006

Replacing the large voter registration books that greeted voters at the polls were computers that checked them in, and printed out a slip for a signature. Getting used to that system took a little while, at least at Hollywood Elementary School.

‘‘There’s a few glitches in the e-book, but they’re being worked on as we speak,” Catherine Countiss, St. Mary’s County elections administrator, said at 11 a.m.

Some polling places in Southern Maryland reported minor hiccups with the new electronic poll books, but they did not impact voters.

‘‘It’s a new system and every new system has its kinks to be worked out,” said Calvert County assistant elections administrator Mary L. DePelteau.

Other areas faced far more severe missteps. In Montgomery County, electronic voting machines did not function when polls opened at 7 a.m., because a vital piece of hardware was not delivered to the county’s 238 precincts. Some voters cast provisional paper ballots and others were told to return later in the day when the machines were operational. A judge ordered polls there to remain open until 9 p.m., an hour after the scheduled end of voting.

Even with a high-profile race for circuit court judge and Democratic races for U.S. Senate, state comptroller, attorney general and St. Mary’s County commission president, voters did not flock to the polls early on election day. At many locations, campaign volunteers outnumbered voters at any one time. ‘‘The people that come out to vote in the primary are the most committed, the party regulars so to speak,” said St. Mary’s College of Maryland political science professor Zach Messitte. ‘‘For a lot of people, it’s just another sunny Tuesday in September.”

Messitte expected only one-third of registered voters would cast ballots. As of 11 a.m., he said only 50 of the 600 registered voters at the precinct at the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department had cast their ballots.

Lower turnouts typically favor the campaigns that are better organized and have more poll workers, he said. The only volunteers outside Messitte’s precinct were stumping for Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Stamm.

Once the dust settles, both parties will attempt to unify their base and prepare for the Nov. 7 general election.

E-mail Alan Brody at abrody@somdnews.com.