Election workers in 15 counties could not connect to the statewide voter registration database
Some California voters waited in long lines Tuesday because of technical glitches connecting to the statewide voter database or, in the case of the nation's most populous county, too many users trying to cast ballots at once through a new election system that had raised concerns about technical and security defects.
The secretary of state's website also was offline sporadically throughout the day. California is among 14 states holding presidential primary contests on Super Tuesday, and voters in the nation's most populous state also are weighing in on congressional races, legislative seats and a statewide school bond.
Election integrity activists had warned that the system was bound to experience serious failures and should have never been certified for use. The conditional certification was contingent on several defects being remedied — after Tuesday's primary. “There's a lot of frustration, people walk away. I don't know if they'll come back. I hope they do,” Gold said.
New this year, Californians will be able to register to vote through 8 p.m. Tuesday at any location where ballots are accepted, which could tie up lines as people fill out paperwork. Results may be delayed because provisional ballots take longer to count. In Sacramento County, one of the 15 that uses vote centers and that experienced glitches Tuesday, spokeswoman Janna Haynes said officials had to resort to a backup plan of treating every voter as a new voter and have them fill out a conditional voter registration form. Then they called their main office with the person's address to determine which precinct ballot each voter needed and printed it out."Fortunately, it was short-lived and didn't impact us all day," she said.
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