Voters hit roadblocks across greater Houston

Election Day problems popped up across greater Houston this morning, as polls opened late, voters found machines broken and election officials created confusion over the state's photo ID laws.

In sprawling Fort Bend County, voters were delayed from casting ballots due to machine problems at George Bush High School, the polling place for 3,715 registered voters.

A volunteer said only one machine was working at 7 a.m. By 8:20, the problem appeared to be fixed.
"Some people just gave up," she said. "Others said they would try to come back after work."

The problem was reported to the Houston Chronicle via ProPublica's Electionland Project.
Fort Bend Democratic Party Chairwoman Cynthia Ginyard was at the school monitoring the situation. She could not confirm when the machines were fixed or how many voters left.

That's always the underlying concern," she said of the possibility that voters would not return.
Ginyard, wearing a button that said "Nasty Women Vote," was headed to Mission Bend Elementary, where some people went after experiencing problems at the high school.

At Birnham Woods Elementary School in Spring, the polling station's registration machine went down for voters with last names from A through L.

It had not worked all morning. By 11:30 a.m., poll workers were still manually checking voter registrations, leading to a line of more than 50 people spilling out of the school's gym and into a hallway.

Some people left due to the long waits. Cynthia Ferguson, 67, was timing her wait on her phone. It hadn't gotten up to an hour and 34 minutes.


Read more:

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/election/article/Voting-problems-persist-across-Houston-10601434.php