How Serious Are the ‘Irregularities’ in Virginia Beach?

You’re going to hear more reports about voting machines that won’t allow a voter to cast a ballot for a particular party or candidate — such as this example from Virginia Beach, where the machine seems to insist the voter cast a ballot for Democrat Suzanne Patrick instead of Republican incumbent Scott Rigell. (Note that above, the voter seemed to vote for Ed Gillespie with no problem.)

Hard to explain that away as a voter “dragging their thumb” across the other option. And apparently it’s more than one machine:

Officials with Rep. Scott Rigell’s campaign said Tuesday afternoon that the number of precincts experiencing problems with voting machines in the 2nd District has increased to 37 locations, nearly double the number from earlier in the day.

Those locations are Alanton, Arrowhead, Bayside, Birneck, Bonney, Cape Henry, Centerville, Chimney Hill, Colonial, Colony, Courthouse, Culver, Dahlia, Great Neck, Homestead, Hunt, Kingston, Lafayette, Lake Christoper, Larkspur, Linkhorn, London Bridge, Lynnhaven, Manor, North Beach, Ocean Lakes, Pleasant Hall, Rock lack, Rosement Forest, Seatack, Shelton Park, Sherry Park, Sigma, Stratford Chase, Tallwood, Upton and Witchduck.

As mentioned in the Morning Jolt, this does happen to Democrats, too, every once in a while.

For Those Who Insist Faulty Voting Machines Never Help the GOP

SkyNet is doing its part for a Republican-controlled Senate . . . are you? Out in North Carolina:

Percy Bostick, 69, of Greensboro said he tried casting a vote for Democrat Kay Hagan at the Old Guilford County Courthouse, only to have the machine register Republican Thom Tillis as his choice.

“I called one of the poll workers over,” Bostick said. “She said do it again. And again, I touched the screen at the proper place for Kay Hagan, and it again reported it for Thom Tillis.”

On his fourth attempt, the machine registered the vote for Hagan. Another poll worker decided to cancel the ballot altogether and directed Bostick to an adjacent machine, where he was able to cast his ballot without any issues.

The problematic machine was taken out of service.

On Wednesday, another voter had reported a similar problem at the Craft Recreation Center. In that case, the voter also tried selecting Hagan but saw the machine had recorded him as choosing Tillis.