Montgomery forgets to issue vote cards

Thousands of Montgomery County voters were forced to use paper ballots or were turned away from the polls early yesterday because elections officials forgot to deliver electronic voting cards to election judges at the county’s 238 precincts.

Many precincts also quickly ran out of provisional paper ballots — the backup system for the electronic voting machines that were employed yesterday for the first time statewide.

In Baltimore, voting was extended by an hour last night because judges at some polling places did not show up on time. There were scattered reports of polling places opening late in Prince George’s County and the District, but the irregularities were not nearly as prevalent as those in Montgomery.

Within hours of the polls opening at 7 a.m., county elections officials had successfully petitioned the Montgomery County Circuit Court to keep the precincts open an extra hour, to 9 p.m.

They said the electronic voting cards had been delivered to all polling places by 10:30 a.m.

Susan Nakamura returned at 8:15 p.m. to Takoma Park Elementary School in Montgomery County, where she and her father had waited as long as they could in the morning before leaving without voting.

“If it hadn’t been open this evening, we wouldn’t have been able to vote,” she said. “It’s incompetence, really.”

The blunder was an embarrassment for county elections officials. The board had pledged to begin posting election results by 9 p.m. Provisional ballots won’t be counted officially until next week.

“Unfortunately, this morning, voters found their polling places unequipped, and for that I am sincerely sorry,” said Nancy H. Dacek, president of the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

Mrs. Dacek, a Republican, is a former County Council member and appointee of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican seeking re-election.

Officials would not specify who was at fault and what penalties might be meted out.

“We are concerned about what happened in Montgomery County and Baltimore. We’re not interested in assessing blame,” said Ross K. Goldstein, deputy administrator of the State Board of Elections.

“We’re going to use our authority under the elections law to ensure that necessary corrections and adjustments are made prior to the general election.”

Elections officials noticed about 6 a.m. that they had forgotten to include electronic voting cards in supply packets sent to election judges.

“The packets are assembled by permanent Board of Elections staff with assistance from temporary employees. We regret the error,” board spokeswoman Marjorie Roher said.

Calling the oversight inexcusable, Rockville voter Jo Youstra said the board should be held accountable.

“My position is that the sole job of the Board of Elections is to carry on the election, and if they can’t do it, then somebody should go,” she said.

Bette Petrides, a Democratic candidate for the County Council, said she had received reports of voters being turned away at several polling places in Bethesda.

“I can only say there were some unhappy people this morning,” Miss Petrides said. “I would certainly have hoped that in a county as large as Montgomery we’d be better prepared.”

Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, sent an e-mail to supporters yesterday afternoon, calling the problems “inexcusable and disheartening.”

Alex Zeese, a spokesman for Takoma Park-based True Vote Maryland, a nonprofit group that has campaigned against the state’s electronic voting system, called the polling problems “a big meltdown.”

Numerous polling places in Baltimore opened late because Republican election judges did not show up on time, officials said. State law requires the presence of judges from both parties at precincts.

Assistant Attorney General William R. Varga, the city election board’s counsel, nonetheless advised Baltimore officials to open polls without Republican judges.

“We can’t have the process stop because judges did not show up for whatever reason,” said Kevin J. Enright, a spokesman for Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., a Democrat who is retiring.

Audra Miller, a spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, said problems at the polls resulted from voting law changes passed this year by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly.

She said the difficult job of recruiting judges and volunteers for the polls was exacerbated by the need to rapidly learn new and sometimes complicated voting laws.

Arthur Harris, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party, disagreed: “The buck stops at Governor Ehrlich’s desk. He appoints all the local election boards.”

There were conflicting reports about how many polls opened late in Baltimore.

Gene Raynor, administrator of the Baltimore Board of Elections, said about 20 polling sites opened late, but Mr. Harris said about 75 polling places were affected.

Problems also were reported in the District and in Prince George’s County.

David Byrd, a consultant for Rushern Baker, a Democratic candidate for Prince George’s County executive, said the campaign received “sporadic reports” of polling places opening late in Greenbelt, Beltsville and Langley Park, among other areas.

In the District, Leo Pinson said that at least three polling places in Ward 6, where he was a Democratic candidate for the D.C. Council, opened late because of staffing shortages.

“My first concern is that we as a country have no right to go and monitor elections in other countries when we can’t get it right,” Mr. Pinson said. “It’s unfortunate this happens when we have so much lead time.”

• Jon Ward contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.