Problems ranging from improper programming to battery failure plagued the launch of the new touch-screen voting machines in Leflore County during the Democratic primary Tuesday.

At five precincts, pollworkers offered paper ballots to voters because of machine malfunctions.

However, machines were working at these by the middle of the day.

Leflore and Jackson counties were the only two that had widespread problems with the Diebold Election Systems equipment, according to David Blount, communications director for the Secretary of State's Office.

In both counties, the machines were improperly programmed, he said.

"Each machine has to be set up for a particular precinct. If your machine is not set up for your individual precinct, it will not work."

A Diebold technician had been working in Leflore County for a month to help local election officials program the equipment for the primary.

"It appears that that person did not do his or her job," Blount said.

Scott Hill, a Diebold troubleshooter, said the machines did not work because of improper set-up and other difficulties.

"There were a couple of precincts that just had off-the-wall problems that we didn't expect and I haven't seen before," he said.

In Money, "one unit didn't have an election on it at all, but it did show that a card had been downloaded for that machine."

The other machine at Money was "in post-election mode," perhaps because "somebody pressed the end-voting button," Hill said.

At the Jodie Wilson Library, about 25 paper ballots were cast between 8:25 and 10:25 a.m., said state Sen. David Jordan, who was tracking the election's progress at that precinct.

Two of the three machines there malfunctioned, and then an encoder that is used for operations - but not to power the whole machine - suffered from battery failure. "They had no spare batteries," Jordan said.

District 5 Election Commissioner Alfred Arrington obtained a replacement at the courthouse.

Circuit Clerk Trey Evans said it would not be sensible to keep spares at the precincts because pollworkers would not be familiar enough with encoders to be able to change the batteries.

New batteries for all of the encoders were bought before the election, he said. He did not know whether they were installed.

Not one of North Greenwood's four machines - two at the American Legion Hut and two at the fire station, both on Claiborne Avenue - was in operation from 7 a.m. until mid-morning, election officials reported.

Rosetta Harris, a pollworker at the fire station, said 27 paper ballots out of almost 400 total were cast there.

A voting machine was reprogrammed and became available after 9 a.m., and a line of people who were waiting to use paper for voting shifted to the machine, Harris said.
After that, she said, "We didn't have a problem."

But one man came to the precinct three times before he could vote by machine. And another line formed because only one of the two machines there was working.

Voters also cast paper ballots during part of the day in Money, Swiftown and Morgan City.

All precincts had at least two machines.

Some precincts had difficulties before polls opened, or right afterward, and these were immediately solved, pollworkers reported.

At East Elementary School, for example, "I had only one machine working at 7 o'clock," pollworker Gail Griggs said. But this was quickly fixed.

"We had a great day, a great turnout," she said.
Regina Rasberry, a pollworker at the Greenwood Community and Recreation Center, said, "When we got there, two worked. ... We had a good day."

The machines record votes on memory cards and on paper rolls that look like those installed in calculators or cash registers.
Vera Moore, a pollworker at the Leflore County Civic Center, said, "We had two paper jams this morning. But by 7:30 a.m., we were rolling. Whoever set the machines up put the paper in wrong." District 2 Election Commissioner Paulette Palmer reinstalled the rolls, Moore said.

"Paulette came through with flying colors," Moore said.

Blount said the machines should have been checked by election officials.

Course and Nathan McDonald, District 3 Election Commissioner, said they were.

McDonald said he and Course were among those who ran diagnostic tests on each machine last week.

Then, the machines were sealed, he said.

In North Greenwood, some people had wondered if their precinct - which is white and mainly Republican - suffered problems because of Democratic resistance to crossover voting.

Jesse Ross, county Democratic Party chairman, said there is no truth to the allegation.

"We had crossover voting in North Greenwood," he said. "You know that."

Course said, "Some people just expect problems."
Blount said there is "absolutely no evidence that the machine problems were an effort to deter Republican crossover voters."