MIAMI, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Election day passed by smoothly in Florida Tuesday, after two debacles -- one two years ago and another in September -- although there were a few of the usual glitches.
Minor problems were not a rarity in other states either. In Arkansas, the polls were ordered to remain open for another hour and a half until 9 p.m. CST because some ballots were missing in the Little Rock area. Arkansas Democrats asked a judge for an extension on voting because of the shortage of ballots and he granted it.
A computer programming error will delay the final vote in one of Texas' most populous counties until early Wednesday, elections officials said.
Tarrant County election judges discovered early Tuesday that a computer program was not registering straight-party votes, Elections Administrator Robert Parten said. The problem was corrected but all of those votes counted before the error was discovered will have to be recounted by a high-speed scanner. That chore may not be accomplished until early Wednesday.
"We want to let everyone know that the election results will be counted accurately and as expeditiously as we possibly can," Parten told a news conference.
Fort Worth and Arlington are located in Tarrant County where about 360,000 votes were expected to be cast Tuesday. Another 120,000 votes from early voting and mail-in ballots will be counted Tuesday night as planned.
Secretary of State Gwyn Shea has predicted that 5 million Texans will vote Tuesday.
Voters in Knox County, Tenn., had to wait for hours at one precinct because no ballots had been delivered. Some people were told they might as well leave, because they would not be able to vote Tuesday.
In Cherry Hill, N.J., voting machines malfunctioned in more than 30 of the township's 46 voting districts. Some voters had to use paper ballots while repairs were made.
Rep. Julia Carson, D-Ind., who is in a close race for a fourth term, came to the polls early to vote for herself, but her machine broke down when she pulled the lever. She was moved to another machine.
Florida was being watched closely by federal, state, local and even international agencies in case of a repeat of the problems that made the state a laughingstock.
Increased manpower and accelerated training apparently helped eliminate some of the problems that plagued the south Florida counties of Miami-Dade and Broward during the primaries.
Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother who was winning re-election over Democratic attorney Bill McBride, said he was pleased with the way things were going.
Giselas Salas, Miami-Dade County assistant supervisor of elections, said: "It's been going very well. All of the precincts were open on time at 7 a.m. and all the voters have been voting."
She said a 60 percent turnout was expected and 20 percent of that figure had already cast their ballots in early voting and absentee voting.
"We're very pleased with how smoothly the process has gone today," County Manager Steve Shiver said. "We're very, very happy with the success of early voting. We've had over 107,000 ballots cast before Nov. 5."
In Broward County, 40,000 people voted early and things were going well on Election Day.
"The lines have been consistent since 7 a.m. We expected a peak about 10 a.m. but we didn't get that," said Roger Desjairlais, Broward County administrator.
In Jacksonville, Fla., the Vote-A-Matic machine at one precinct wouldn't scan ballots. It was the same precinct where voting started 90 minutes late in September because poll workers had failed to turn the machine on.
Voters at another Jacksonville precinct were initially supplied with the wrong type of black marking pens. The marks went through the two-sided ballot, rendering it unreadable by the machine. New ballots and the correct pens solved this problem.
In Osceola County near Walt Disney World, the canvassing board voted 2-1 to give voters who had failed to complete their absentee ballot envelopes properly the opportunity to correct their errors.
State Elections Director Ed Kast sent a memo to all supervisors of elections before the election, however, making it clear that once absentee ballots have been submitted, it is illegal for them to be altered in any way.
Both major parties have teams of attorneys on standby if they decide it is necessary to challenge this issue in court. Orange County also allowed voters to fix absentee ballot envelope errors.
In Orange County, Republican Party officials have been inspecting the envelopes of absentee ballots set aside for canvassing board review because of voters' failure to complete them properly with addresses, signatures, or witness signatures.
They have been contacting affected registered Republicans and advising them to visit the elections office in Orlando to correct the problems. Democrats have not done the same.
Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said it is the voter's responsibility to follow the instructions completely so their votes will count and it was not the responsibility of his office to advise them of these procedural errors.
He said since the records are public, either party could check the envelopes, but the Democrats had not asked to do so. Orange County Democratic Party spokesman Doug Head said supervisors in other counties did not allow voters to correct such errors, although he thinks it should be permitted.
Voter News Service, an organization that counts votes for the media, said the results of a national exit poll will not be available Tuesday night.
The exit polls are used for early projections and for analysis of who voted how and why.
