New York Times: A Citywide Paper Jam: Ballot Problems Fuel Calls for Election Reform

There was plenty of blame to go around for the outbreak of voting machine breakdowns and long delays that plagued New York City polling places on Election Day, but no one was certain of a precise solution — only that one was needed fast.

Although Tuesday’s election did not have the highest voter turnout ever, it did have the most ballot pages stuffed into digital scanners on a single day — because of the unusual two-sheet ballot design, which appears to have contributed to machine breakdowns and long voting delays.

Sarah Goff, the associate director of Common Cause, the good government group, said that the problem with broken scanners was like “a giant paper jam citywide.” …

In some cases, voters appear to have fed the two pages in at once, which could have jammed machines. Or the pages might have been torn unevenly, which also could have caused jams. Or they were damp because voters came in from the rain, which made the ballots stick in the scanners.

Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause, said that the two-sheet ballot was a mistake. “It’s complicated,” she said. “It puts unnecessary pressure on the machine.”