Even after a $280 million investment in modernizing its elections, including new high-tech voting machines as part of the Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP) initiative, Los Angeles on Super Tuesday still saw long lines of voters after some voting systems had difficulty connecting to the California voter database and other technical glitches arose.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urged voters to hang in there, tweeting, “Stay in line, friends. Your vote is imperative.”
In addition to rolling out new voting machines, California introduced election day registration – making the linkup between voting systems and the voter database more critical – and Los Angeles did away with just relying on local polling places, instead letting citizens cast votes at any voting center in the county.
While voters can fill out their ballots anywhere on a choice of devices then send their picks and other information to voting machines using a QR code, the systems are also back up with paper records.
