Long lines, voting problems reported statewide at the polls

RICHMOND

Voters were lined up by the hundreds Tuesday as polls opened in Virginia, and reports quickly began to mount of malfunctioning voting machines and polling places opening late.

The State Board of Elections said at a briefing there were no "widespread problems" and blamed human error and the rain for those problems that were reported.

"Virginians are turning out in record numbers," spokeswoman Susan S. Pollard said in a statement. "Although a light rain is falling across the state, it does not seem to have dampened turnout."

Of 2,349 precincts, three opened late, Pollard said. She did not take any questions.

In several suburban Richmond counties, voters and elections officials reported paper jams on some machines and balky touch-screen machines in some localities had local registrars turning to paper ballots.

At one precinct in Richmond's north end, hundreds of people encircled a branch library by 6 a.m., the scheduled opening of the polls. But the line grew for another 25 minutes before the poll workers opened the doors. They said the librarian who had a key to the polling place had overslept.

Despite the delay under a steady drizzle, voters cheered as the doors opened at 6:25 a.m.

In Chesapeake, approximately 1,000 voters stood in line to vote, and some people reported malfunctioning machines.

Pollard said paper ballots were brought into one polling place in Henrico County, in suburban Richmond. In Petersburg, the wrong machines were delivered to a polling place.

Pollard said reports of optical scanning machines not recording votes were likely the result of the wet weather.

"The majority of these problems resulted from voters coming in from the rain and filling out their ballots with wet hands and clothes," she said.

At George Mason University in Fairfax, Provost Peter N. Stevens wrote in a campus e-mail that a hacker had entered a message into the university system stating the Election Day had been rescheduled.

"I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it," he wrote in the e-mail.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have keyed on Virginia's 13 electoral votes, and polls have given Obama a slight lead. A Democratic presidential candidate has not won Virginia since 1964.

State elections officials have said Virginia could see an unprecedented Election Day turnout. Since Jan. 1, Virginia had added 436,000 people to its voting rolls.

The enthusiasm was apparent at some polling places, where voters huddled under umbrellas an hour or more before polls opened.

Jennifer Howard, 51, arrived at Herndon High School at 5:05 a.m. She was fifth in line.

"I knew the lines were going to be really long, and I'm a nurse and I had to be at work on time," she said.