In O.C., E-Voting Wins Easily

When Orange County introduced paperless voting in March, mistakes by poll workers nullified thousands of ballots. With the county better prepared for Tuesday’s election, the biggest problem seemed to be running out of “I Voted” stickers.

Tested by a huge turnout, the county’s $26-million electronic voting system ran smoothly during its first general election. The bigger issue was voters’ patience: At various polling places, some voters had to wait 2 1/2 hours or longer -- even when polls closed at 8 p.m. -- to take their turn at the devices.

When Craig Abrams, 41, went to his Irvine precinct at 1:30 p.m., he was told the wait was 40 minutes. “I should have stayed,” he said. When he returned at 6:30 p.m., the wait was two hours. “I was absolutely amazed. It’s the most crowded I’ve seen in my entire voting life.”

At UC Irvine, where more than 400 voters were still in line to cast ballots an hour after the doors closed, officials delivered another dozen voting devices to help relieve the congestion.

Aside from being overwhelmed, officials reported only scattered problems, and voters said the process was easier than they had anticipated, once they entered the booth.

“My computer skills are pretty bad, so I expected it to be more complicated,” said Freddie Herrarte, 29, a Guatemala native who recently became a U.S. citizen. “But it doesn’t take brains to do it.”

In the March primary, inexperienced poll workers gave thousands of people the wrong ballots, and other voters complained that they inadvertently pressed the “Cast Ballot” button before finishing their selections.In response, the county improved training and recruited 7,700 volunteers, about 2,100 more than in March.

The moves appeared to have worked.

“We trained them based upon lessons learned,” Orange County Registrar of Voters Steve Rodermund said. “We got more of them. We made sure the issues that came up in the March primary ... couldn’t happen.”

Not that the day was glitch-free. Faulty equipment shut down voting machines at precincts in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, forcing voters to cast paper ballots for a while. And in La Habra, officials removed a poll worker after several voters complained he was rude and asked them for identification proving they were U.S. citizens.

“He got a little upset,” said Paul Timpano, the volunteer inspector at the site. “He got a little loud and said, ‘I just can’t understand this. Who would complain?’ I told him we need to be polite when we greet the voters. We don’t turn away voters.”

And officials didn’t want them voting prematurely either. Signs warning people to respect the finality of the big red knob on the voting machines were posted at precincts in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese.

“Do Not Press Cast Ballot,” they read, “Until You Have Finished Voting Your Selections.”

At a precinct in Lake Forest, a flashing red button on a table next to a practice machine served as a not-too-subtle reminder to voters who might have missed the sign.

Many voters used paper ballots, perhaps feeling more comfortable with something familiar -- and tangible.

“Everybody should have some sort of paper trail,” said Philip Weinreich, 57, of Irvine, who asked for a paper ballot at an elementary school polling place.

Weinreich said he voted in March but would never be certain that his ballot was counted. Electronic voting, he said, “is very dangerous for democracy because eventually someone can figure a way to crack a machine.”

Others discerned an advantage to voting the old-fashioned way: At some polls with long lines, paper and pen was quicker than technology.

Rather than wait for one of the five electronic voting machines at Our Lady of the Pillar Church in Santa Ana, at least a third of the voters cast paper ballots.

“When the lines were really long, people started asking me if there was another way,” precinct inspector Robert Rodriguez said. “I didn’t encourage them to use a [paper] ballot, but I didn’t discourage them either.”

David Cruz, 38, of Santa Ana was so intimidated by electronic voting that he called a friend on a cellphone for advice before stepping into the booth. After leaving the church hall, Cruz was laughing.

“It was so easy, so simple,” he said. “I don’t know what you could do to make it better.”

Terry and Angela Griffiths, who moved to California from Wales and recently became U.S. citizens, said they were also expecting the worst. But they left their polling place in Lake Forest pleasantly surprised.

“It was so simple, so clear, so exact,” said Terry Griffiths, 68. “It was far easier than I ever expected.”

Griffiths said his fears vanished once a poll worker walked him through the process on a practice machine. Poll worker Terry Konyndyk said he was advising voters to take advantage of the trial run.

“We’re being very proactive about it, because we don’t want the problems later,” Konyndyk said. “As a result, we’ve had very few questions from the booths.”

And when there were questions, poll workers seemed ready with an answer. At Springbrook Elementary School in Irvine, where 30 people were waiting in line when voting began at 7 a.m., the biggest problem was people who thought the voting machines worked by touching the screen.

“I could swear it was touch screen” in March, said Teresa Caro, 44, of Irvine, who called a poll worker for help after she thought she inadvertently cast her ballot.

She was relieved when told she hadn’t and was shown how to work the machine’s knob and buttons.

Mark Dann, 65, of Laguna Niguel said he could have used a two-minute refresher course before stepping into the booth.

“I know how to use a computer, but it’s a little confusing,” he said. “I had a hard time going back once I voted for a particular candidate.”

First-time voter Leslie Harper, 34, of Laguna Niguel was expecting the worst. She came to her precinct at a YMCA in Laguna Niguel with her 15-month-old son Ryan -- and a bad attitude.

She left a convert to the paperless age.

“I thought it would be a nightmare,” Harper said. “I expected long lines and confusion, and Ryan crying and having a tantrum. But it was fast, easy and efficient. I loved it.”

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Times staff writers Tonya Alanez, Jeff Gottlieb, Christine Hanley and Daniel Yi contributed to this report.