Voting Appears to Go Well Despite Ballot Shortages in Conn.

(Nov. 2) -- Voting in today's contentious midterm elections appeared to go smoothly for the most part, although ballot shortages led to polling hours being extended in Connecticut's largest city.

Elsewhere, there was a sprinkling of reports about malfunctioning machines and other glitches, including confoundingly small type on New York ballots and a man in Ohio who was told he couldn't vote because he was dead.

Some polling stations ran out of ballots in Bridgeport, Conn., and Mayor Bill Finch asked the state to extend voting for two hours, until 10 p.m. A spokeswoman for Finch said turnout was much higher than expected. Following an emergency hearing, a judge ruled that 12 of Bridgeport's 25 polling places would stay open till 10 p.m., the Hartford Courant and Connecticut Post reported.

Despite the chaotic debut of electronic voting machines in September's primary, New Yorkers experienced relatively few problems today. In Brooklyn, some electronic scanners weren't booting up, and in other parts of New York City, voters complained about the tiny font size on their two-sided ballots.

"I found the system very easy, though the type on the ballot was way too small and difficult to read," Bruce from Jackson Heights in Queens posted on WNYC radio's voting problems website. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who called primary problems -- long lines, poorly trained poll workers and machines that didn't work -- a "royal screw-up," admitted today's voting was much smoother, at least for him.

"In all fairness, at my polling booth, the people were as friendly as could be," Bloomberg said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "They were as helpful as could be. They told me to be sure to turn the ballot over and look at the questions on the back."

In Ohio's Delaware County, Robert Early Jr. was able to vote, despite being told Monday by election officials that he was dead. Human error was responsible. "Somebody had the same last name as this person and [someone] accidentally put him down as deceased," said Delaware County Board of Elections director Brian Mumford, according to WBNS TV.

Sporadic problems were also reported in North Carolina, where some voters in Surry County had trouble voting because the wrong voter registries were printed out, WGHP TV reported. In Wisconsin's Dane County, new ballots had to be ordered after an electronic machine wasn't able to tally them, WKOW TV reported.

As polls began closing tonight, voting continued to be mostly trouble-free, with only scattered reports of disturbances.

In Hennepin County, Minn., precinct judges had "very firm exchanges" with "aggressive" people challenging the validity of some voters, according to Elections Manager Rachel Smith, The Associated Press reported.

Challengers were reminded they could sit behind registration tables but only contest someone's right to vote based their personal knowledge, not how the voter "looks or acts," Smith said.

Voting expert Larry Norden of New York University's Brennan Center for Justice told AOL News the day was peaceful overall.
"By and large, it sounds like things have gone well. But sometimes you don't know until days later. When there are close races, that's when everything gets put under the microscope."

Early, the Ohio resident, had been trying to vote in advance of today's election. Such voting is a trend across the country in which voters can cast ballots before Election Day. Thirty-six states now have some type of early voting, which is designed to avoid the debacle of 2000, when the presidential race was thrown into disarray because of several voting problems, including confusion at polling places.

And it is that newer practice that may provide the greatest drama in this midterm election, election experts say.

"It's going to be less about the machines [malfunctioning] and more about the ballots being counted after the polls close," Doug Chapin, director of election initiatives at the Pew Center on the States, told AOL News. "The drama will begin on election night, rather than during the day. This is more about what's on the ballots than how the machines count them."

Ballot counting in close races surfaced in the November 2008 election when the Minnesota U.S. Senate race was decided by 225 votes, after a mandatory recount and months of legal battling that saw comedian Al Franken finally sworn in as a Democratic senator six months after his term began.

At stake in today's contest are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, with Republicans needing a net gain of 39 to take control. In the Senate, 37 seats are to be decided, of which the Republicans need to pick up 10 to gain a majority. This especially quarrelsome election is seen by many as a referendum on President Barack Obama's performance during a troubled economy.

Also up for grabs are 37 governor seats in states from California to New York, with heavy influence from conservative tea party politicians. In 10 swing states, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado and Nevada, Republicans and Democrats are fighting for control in races expected to be extremely tight, and thereby subject to longer tabulation periods.

That means it could be days before results are known. "In the old world [before 2000], you could think of the unofficial results as a good barometer of what the final vote would be," Chapin said. "But the big change in 2010 is the number of ballots cast before Election Day, which will extend the counting process."