Local

Some voters report problems at polls

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Among the voters at the precinct inside Winding Springs Elementary were Marsha Skinner and her husband.  With a sample ballot, she showed Eyewitness News what she said happened when she went to vote for Mitt Romney.

“I pushed right here (and voted for Romney), and Barack Obama lit up,” Skinner said.

She thought it was her mistake.

“I thought maybe I didn’t push it right, so I did it again and it switched it again,” she said.

After a fourth try, Skinner said her vote for Romney finally stuck, and so did her concern.

“There's a problem with the machines,” Skinner said. “I've no doubt there's a problem with the machine.”

But Mecklenburg County insists there's not, saying a technician came to check the precinct's machines immediately after hearing of the complaint.

“He checked the calibration of every one of them, and it was perfect. (There) wasn’t anything wrong,” said Joann Walker, a Board of Elections volunteer.

At the Board of Elections Tuesday, phones were ringing off the hook, and a team of 10 voting machine technicians had been responding to potential problems.

Director Michael Dickerson insists his team has yet to find any machine recording votes incorrectly.

“I'm not concerned. You all are. I'm perfectly happy,” Dickerson said. “You've got plenty of opportunities to verify who you voted for in this machine.”

And precinct volunteers said they're trying to reinforce that message -- that voters should look their ballot over carefully before leaving the voting booth.

Eyewitness News checked in with Dickerson throughout the day.  Despite the complaints we heard Tuesday, he said there have been no major problems so far.

His team of technicians remains ready to respond to any concerns about voting machine accuracy.