US election marred by long lines and machine breakdowns

Long lines at the polls meant waits as much as seven hours in some precincts, as election balloting was marred by voting-machine breakdowns and a proliferation of fliers and text messages advising people to wait until tomorrow, voting-rights experts said.

Election officials in Virginia reported lines of up to a half-mile long in Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond, the capital, and voter-rights groups said citizens faced long waits in Philadelphia and Detroit, where one line contained 1,000 people waiting to cast ballots.

Machine breakdowns in Cleveland, across Virginia, in the San Francisco area and in some of Florida's most populous counties, including Miami-Dade, were also reported to a telephone hotline operated by Election Protection, a coalition of rights groups.

"Our American voting system is broken,'' said Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the groups in the coalition.

"It needs to be more efficient, it needs to be fair and it needs to be accurate.''

Election Protection received reports of fliers, text messages and automated telephone calls advising people in more than a dozen states that Republicans should vote today and Democrats tomorrow, lawyers for the group said.

"We are surprised at how ubiquitous it has become and how sophisticated,'' said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections.

Some calls told voters that because of long lines today, they could vote by telephone, which isn't allowed. Many of the calls were "targeted at African-American and some Latino neighborhoods'' in Virginia, Louisiana and Florida, Arnwine said.

Such tricks have been seen in recent elections; the new twist is "predatory deceptive practices based on the election problems,'' she said.

"Fliers are saying you are able to vote on Wednesday because of the long lines.'' Political operatives trying to suppress voting are "using the systemic failures'' to make their messages "more realistic-sounding,'' she said.

At George Mason University in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, "somebody hacked into'' the university e-mail system to send a message that appeared to be signed by the provost telling students they should vote tomorrow, said Heather Smith, of the group Rock the Vote.

Voters in two precincts in Kansas City reported that they were forced to cast provisional ballots because election officials hasn't delivered the correct voter rolls to their assigned polling places, Election Protection officials said.

Nancy Rodrigues, Virginia's top election official, said failure is expected in about 1 percent of voting machines each election or primary. "It happens,'' she told reporters at a Richmond news conference that was broadcast on the Internet.

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain's presidential campaign has sued Virginia election officials, seeking a court order to extend by 10 days the deadline for receiving valid absentee ballots from soldiers and other voters overseas.

Under Virginia law, absentee ballots must be returned before the close of voting at 7pm. McCain's lawyers contended in court papers the 10-day extension was required because Virginia was 10 days late mailing absentee ballots to overseas voters.

A federal judge in Richmond, Richard Williams, ordered Virginia election officials to preserve absentee ballots received after the polls closed, in case they are eventually ordered to count the votes.

"So this is a matter that can be dealt with after the election,'' Rodrigues said.

"I feel confident whatever happens in this suit, we are following the law.''