Smigiel, Wright complain of voting problems in Norfolk

NORFOLK

City Council candidate Tommy Smigiel claims that three voters in East Ocean View and another at the Oceanair precinct attempted to vote for him but voting machines would only allow them to vote for incumbent W. Randy Wright.

But city election officials said today that no votes were miscast. Any problems were simply because of voter error, they said.

“That just simply couldn’t be,”James Hinshaw, head of the city’s electoral board, said. “I really question the validity of that claim.”

Meanwhile, Wright said he was concerned about a voting machine that broke at Tarrallton Elementary School, a precinct where he typically gets a lot of support.

“People had been voting on it for hours before they shut it down,” Wright said. “They say they can retrieve the votes from the machine, and I hope they can."

City Registrar Elisa Long said the voters Smigiel referred to apparently ran their fingers across the screen, which can cause the wrong candidate’s name to appear.

“If someone did inadvertently touch the screen, all you have to do is to back to the previous screen,” she said.“The good thing about the equipment is that you can make as many changes as you want, as many times as you want, until you cast the ballot.”

"I can’t imagine somebody voted for the wrong person accidentally," she said. "The screen tells you who you’re voting for.”

However, David Rosmer, an East Ocean View resident who supports Smigiel, said it nearly happened to him.

Rosmer said at least twice in an attempt to vote for Smigiel the machine gave him Wright’s name instead.

“I went back to the directions and was able to figure it out,” he said. “But most people aren’t going to do that.”

Smigiel said election officials shut the machine down as soon as his campaign filed a complaint.

“I don’t understand why it wasn’t shut down as soon as they realized they had problems,” he said.

Smigiel filed a complaint, saying poll worker Jim Janata, a Wright supporter, said derogatory things about him to a voter.

He said Janata received complaints from voters about the machine, but did nothing to shut it down.

Wright replied that a Smigiel supporter is also a poll worker.

“He would never do that,” Wright said of Janata. “This kind of statement is so typical of Tommy Smigiel. All of these people working the polls are honorable people and I would never call their integrity into question.”

Hinshaw said the turnout today is light in an election in which six of eight council positions are up for grabs.

The turnout in Ward 2, where Theresa Whibley is running unopposed, is particularly light, he said. The turnout is better in the other four wards. Voters will also elect the mayor.

Hinshaw said at most, 30,000 of 117,000 registered voters will cast ballots.

“This is typical of a City Council election,” he said. “People are just geared to vote in November.”