Judge says Pa. must provide paper ballots

A federal judge today ordered Pennsylvania election officials to issue emergency paper ballots if 50 percent or more of any precinct's machines fail at any one time on Election Day.

Delays caused by voting-machine breakdowns on Tuesday could unduly burden citizens and deprive them of their right to vote, Chief Judge Harvey Bartle III ruled.

"The evidence, not surprisingly, demonstrated that DRE [direct-recording electronic] voting machines, like all other machines, sometimes fail. When that happens, time is of the essence," Bartle wrote in a 28-page ruling. "The polls are open for one day and one day only and then for only 13 hours. There is no rain date."

A coalition of voters and civil rights groups, led by the NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania, sued Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortes over problems caused by machine failures in the April primary, when there were long lines and some voters were turned away.

On Sept. 3, Cortes instructed poll workers to issue paper ballots when all machines in a polling place shut down at once, but the groups contended that standard was not strong enough.

After an eight-hour hearing Tuesday in federal court in Philadelphia, the judge agreed: "We find there is a real danger that a significant number of machines will malfunction throughout the commonwealth, and this occurrence is likely to cause unacceptably long lines on Nov. 4."

He cited a Cheltenham breakdown in which voters were inconvenienced from 7 to about 9:30 a.m. on primary day before one machine was repaired and the second replaced with one shipped from Norristown.

Poll watcher Coletta Thomas testified that she saw from 175 to 200 people in line. Many left without voting, but she did not know whether they returned later.

"They were very angry," she said.

Bartle wrote: "We would be blind to reality if we did not recognize that many individuals have a limited window of opportunity to go to the polls due to their jobs, child-care and family responsibilities, or other weighty commitments. Life does not stop on Election Day."

Cortes said the state and counties would work together to comply with Bartle's ruling.

"That said, we hope emergency paper ballots will not need to be used extensively on Election Day," he said in a statement. "Over the past four years, counties have put systems in place to remedy machine issues, including roving technicians and additional substitute voting machines."