By: Chris Besik
All across the United States people are on alert for voting irregularities and Humber News reporters covering the election in Buffalo discovered problems at two polling stations leading to some frustration for voters.
Humber News spoke to a woman outside of a Erie county polling station,who expressed concern about issues with polling machines, forcing people to travel greater distances to vote.
Americans gather at the polling stations in Erie County New York.
(Photo: Laura Dart)
“I’m frustrated right now,” she said.
“I conveniently came to vote at Westburry and Elwood Avenue, and [in] my districts the machine is down,’ she said.
“I have concerns with that.”
Our reporters also talked to Sean Day who is running for New York state assembly.
He was asked about some polls being down and offered his opinion on whether people should worry about the election is rigged.
“It’s almost impossible to rig an American election because they are all done by individual states, so you have 50 different states, with 50 different sets of rules, and 50 different voting machines and methods of counting,” said Day.
“There is no one way where you can just hack into one system, and you can control it all.”
A voting booth at the Erie county polling station in New York.
(Laura Dart/Humber News)
The machine malfunctioned, he said, and he assured people that those two polling machines would be up and working by the early afternoon. He also mentioned the quality of the polling machines used. Whether its the old manual machines or newer polling machines he said there is always an issue with the technical process of counting the votes.
“It’s really built to make it so its nearly impossible to have any widespread fraud, because its a chaotic democratic system.”
Voter fraud has been mentioned by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as an issue for this election.
Voter fraud consists of anything that gets in the way of a citizen casting their honest vote in any election. Whether it be fixing votes or intimidating the voters to side with you, any form of intervention into a free and honest vote is voter fraud.
NBC has been tracking reports of voting issues across the U.S. They began tracking on Oct. 27, and listed multiple issues with the election and voting at polling stations across the country.
Nov. 8
According to CNN’s John Newsome, two election clerks have been fired in Florida. A Broward county official told CNN that they were fired for, “not working to the level of integrity they were trained to.” The clerks were quickly replaced. The official never disclosed what rules were being violated.
Today is the final day for voting and some Americans are showing up to protest this election. A topless protestor frequents the polling station where Trump casted his vote.
Protest inside polling station where Trump votes. Two women arrested. #Election2016#votepic.twitter.com/YxXKb8NwMD
— Sharon Clott Kanter (@sharonclott) November 8, 2016
Topless protesters target Trump in Manhattan #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/Nixs2PdnWx
— news10nbc (@news10nbc) November 8, 2016
CBC reported that a shooting has taken place near a polling station in California, the shooting is not associated with the election. Four people have been shot, two are dead one is the gunman.
One dead in shooting in California, three injured near polling station. No indication so far that it is election-related: reports
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) November 8, 2016
The attack “had nothing to do with the ballot or voting,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. John Corina told the Associated Press. “It just happened to be across the street from the park where the voting was taking place and also an elementary school.”
Nov. 7
Trump supporters patrolled early polling stations in convoys of trucks adorned by confederate flags and other symbols some feel are racist.The Indiana Democratic Party sent out text messages which listed incorrect polling places to close to 2,000 voters
Nov. 5
A federal judge ruled that North Carolina allowed three counties to remove voters from the rolls illegally. The ruling ordered that voters be allowed to cast their ballots.
Nov. 6
The U.S. Justice Department said it is planning to monitor four counties in North Carolina. One of which is being sued for allegedly removing thousands of voters from the rolls.
“The State Board of Elections is aware that the U.S Department of Justice will be monitoring certain precincts within your county,”According to the Associated Press, Kim Strach, the director of the State Board of Elections, wrote in a memo Wednesday to the boards of election for Wake, Cumberland, Robeson, and Forsyth counties.
Nov. 1
Philadelphia’s public transit workers went on strike at 12:01 a.m.
4,738 unionized employees stopped working after unsuccessful negotiations with SEPTA.
The six-day long transit blunder ended on Nov. 7, just in time for people to get in, and cast last minute votes for the election.
Oct. 31
The Democrats sued the Trump campaign over alleged voter intimidation in four different states.
The four lawsuits charged the state parties in Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania with teaming up with the Trump campaign and Trump ally Roger Stone to raise unrealistic fears about voter fraud and intimidate minority voters.
The law suit sighted the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act which both aim to prevent voter intimidation.
Oct. 27
Trump tweeted “vote flipping” in Texas, but the election officials couldn’t verify whether this was true.
A lot of call-ins about vote flipping at the voting booths in Texas. People are not happy. BIG lines. What is going on?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2016
With files from Lindsay Wadden, Katherine Aylesworth and Laura Dart