For election observers, that fact, as reported by Computer World magazine, represents just a fraction of the uncertainty faced by US voters in a rapidly changing electoral system.
'The new machines, new laws, new people working at the polls, the combination is somewhat combustible,' said Doug Chapin of the nonpartisan Electionline organization, a Washington-based watchdog keeping track of changes in an already historically unwieldy system.
To foreign visitors following elections in the US, the system can be a puzzle. Voters choose individuals, not parties. There is no national body that sets rules and tracks the voting, only 50 individual state agencies.
Even the 50-state programme was imposed by federal law after the chaos of the 2000 presidential elections, when US President George W Bush snatched the White House on barely more than 500 votes in Florida. Until then, even smaller units - such as counties or cities - were largely in charge of voter registration, printing ballots and voting.
In addition, there are new computerized voter lists, new voter registration rules and identification requirements, many of them under court challenge.
It all adds up to an atmosphere of voter uncertainty about whether their vote will be counted.
There's considerable confusion in Arizona, on the frontline of illegal immigration from Mexico, about a measure passed in 2004 by voters to require proof of citizenship to register to vote, according to Electionline. The requirement is under a court challenge, but will be enforced at least this year.
States traditionally have not required US voters to show proof of citizenship when they register vote because Americans often have no passport or birth certificate.
In Maryland, a heavily Democratic state, Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich has undermined voter confidence in touch-screen machines - already in trouble after problems in the September primaries - by urging voters to cast absentee ballots.
The state has not been able to keep up with the crush of 200,000 applications, meaning many have not yet been delivered or mailed by the deadline date.
Democrats have cried foul over instructions by the Republican party to their poll watchers to challenge as many voters' rights as possible on election day - and to threaten local poll judges with jail if their challenges aren't heard, according to the Century Foundation, another election-watch group.
'The election process itself has become a political issue,' said Sima Osdoby, an election expert in Rockville, Maryland, who has worked internationally and domestically.
In Maryland, as in other states, both parties are lining up high- power teams of legal experts: the Republicans to challenge as many ballots as possible, made easier by the large number of paper absentee ballots encouraged by the Republican governor; the Democratic teams, to defend against Republican voter intimidation.
If Maryland's hard-fought, key senate race is the last decisive contest for the Senate, the country may even have to wait until Friday or longer to find out who's in control, since the state won't start counting the absentee ballots until Thursday.
After its contentious 2004 general election, Ohio - with a number of very close House of Representatives elections - will again be 'at the epicentre of this election,' the Century Foundation said. One quandary centres on voter-identification, and whether the date of an electric bill must be 30 or 120 days.
Missouri - with the closest senate race in the country - also has one of the most 'draconian' identification laws in the US, requiring an official photo ID to vote. Although the issue is under court challenge, there's still much voter confusion, experts said.
'We are in a period of intense partisan competition, when large districts can be decided by tiny numbers of votes,' Chapin said. 'We have as many as a hundred house seats, and a dozen senate seats, that could come down to literally a handful of votes.'
© 2003 - 2006 by Monsters and Critics.com, WotR Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All photos are copyright their respective owners and are used under license or with permission. * Note M&C cannot be held responsible for the content on other Web Sites.
Arts - Books - DVD - Forums - Home - Movies - Music - People & Celebrity - Science - Soundtracks - Sport - Tech - TV - World News
About Us - The Team - Advertise - Contact - Join the Team - Privacy - RSS Feeds - Site Map - Terms & Conditions - Webmasters
Servers supplied by Servint
