Voter ID brings some confusion, frustrations
MERCER COUNTY — Though there was some confusion about the state’s voter ID law, Mercer County Elections Director Jeff Greenburg said Tuesday was a frantically-paced routine presidential election in the county.
“It was not much different than what we experienced in ’08,” Greenburg said.
Greenburg said the biggest issue was frustration and concerns from voters about why they were asked to show photo identification when everything they’d heard said they wouldn’t have to this election after the state Supreme Court shot down the ID law.
In that ruling, the state said poll workers should still ask for photo identification Tuesday as part of the education process, though voters weren’t required to present it to cast a ballot.
But first-time voters or those in a new precinct were still required to show ID, as they always were. Greenburg said this wasn’t a focus of the publicity about the law’s approval, appeal and delay.
“Honestly, because of the way this whole voter ID thing was rolled out, in my mind and heart I expected confusion today,” said Greenburg, adding that if it were up to him they would’ve left the ID issue until the next election. “I believe the way it played out wasn’t necessarily best for voters.”
He said poll workers minimized it as much as they could and did what they were trained to do. But some folks were still unclear about the requirement because of “information that came in at such a fast and furious pace.”
In Crawford County, the voter services director took responsibility for what she called an “oversight” that led to signs saying voters needed photo ID to vote being put up at polling places.
Melanie Mushrush told the Meadville Tribune that the signs were created by her office and included in packets for poll workers after the law passed but were never removed after the rule was reversed.
Greenburg said that wasn’t an issue in Mercer County because they didn’t print such signs. He said he waited until the court ruled because he didn’t want to spend thousands of county tax dollars to have them made if they weren’t needed.
He said he told poll workers to forget all their training on the law for this Election Day.
Greenburg said his office did not get any complaints from voters who said they were turned away for not having ID.
He said poll workers were instructed to ask each voter for their photo identification, but anecdotal reports show some precinct workers in Farrell, Greenville, Hermitage and Jamestown didn’t ask everyone to see it.
Greenburg said the phone lines rang constantly from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and 90 percent of them were from workers or citizens to look up voter registration information.
Renee Delgadillo votes at the Sharon city building and said she had to go back out to her car to get her photo ID because she was listed as an “inactive” voter. She said she’s voted regularly over the last decade and didn’t know why she was labeled so.
Greenburg said if there is an issue with a person’s address, such as if a piece of mail comes back to the county as undeliverable, they’re marked inactive.
There was one major voting machine malfunction when a memory chip failed in Wilmington Township, Greenburg said. The machine shut itself down with 46 ballots on it and they’ll be able to retrieve those votes at the county office. In Sharpsville, one machine got knocked over before the polls opened and wasn’t able to be used, he said.
Greenburg said there were the usual issues with a few machines not calibrated properly, but when voters told poll workers the screen didn’t correctly register who they intended to vote for they were able to recalibrate them and they worked fine.
Some voiced concerns about poll watchers inside precincts asking for voters names. Greenburg said this is allowed and those working for the parties have to present a valid certificate to the poll workers.
“They have a right to ask you for your name and you have a right to not answer them,” he said.