Election machines worked great

The city's first election using the new electronic voting machines seemed to go almost perfectly.
"Everybody says the system is working and they enjoy working with it," said Democratic Registrar Bob Badal.
"Everyone loved it," said city Treasurer Patti Ewen, who spent six hours at the polls talking with voters.
Badal said poll moderators are finding the new machines easy to use, although they have the normal first-time jitters. Badal said he hadn't heard of any voter complaints or problems.
Moderator Terry Parker, who was working the poll at Greene-Hills School Tuesday, said voters like the new machines.
The "vast majority think it's better than the old machines," Parker said. "It's easier."
Voter Roy Gagnon said he was a little apprehensive as he went to cast his ballot on the new machines for the first time, but discovered he had little to worry about.
"I thought it was real easy," said Gagnon.
At the American Legion, moderator Vernon Koch even found counting a breeze.
He watched the clock strike 8 p.m. and declared, "The polls are closed."
Then he fed an Accu-Vote Ender Card into the automatic scanner that had registered ballots all day, pushed the yes and no buttons at the same time, and watched a printout spit out within seconds.
With the old lever machines, the count there took 45 minutes.
Badal said that one counting machine, at Stafford School, failed to operate properly this morning. It had tested perfectly, Badal said, but it didn't work at the polling place. "Something must have happened to the memory card" during the move, he said.
A backup machine was used instead and there was never a hitch in the voting, "not one second, not one vote" was lost, Badal said.
Parker, who said he's been a poll moderator since 1986, said he's had to help voters re-learn the mechanical lever machines many times.
Overall, the process of using the new machines has been smoother, Parker said.
"There may be some growing pains," Parker said. "We'll get through it."
Outside Greene-Hills School, three campaign volunteers stood in the rain, holding signs, hoping to woo voters in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Jim Hopkins and Mike LaMothe were at the poll for the party's endorsed candidate, Ellen Zoppo, and Rich Sivel was there for challenger Art Ward. They all said they'd heard no complaints about the new machines.
Sivel, a union member from West Hartford who came to lend his support in the Bristol race, said he'd been standing there for more than two hours.
LaMothe and Hopkins said they'd both voted and found no trouble using the new machines.
"This is so basic," said LaMothe. "There's very little chance to mess it up."
Hopkins, who also spent time at the poll at Chippens Hill Middle School , said the electronic machines are "pretty simple."
A couple of representatives from the secretary of state's office came by to check on how the voting was going, Badal said, apparently part of a statewide effort to make certain the new electronic machines are doing the job.


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