Election glitches are high-tech, low-tech

High-tech glitches with electronic voting machines and e-poll registers are a huge part of concern over next month's election day, but officials are also scrambling to recover from a raft of low-tech screw-ups, Stateline.org reports.

A few cases in point:

In Ottawa County, Mich., a ballot was printing with the word "pubic" instead of "public," forcing a reprint at a cost of $40,000. In Denver, 44,000 absentee ballots reversed the boxes for yes and no - and the mailing's suggested return postage was insufficient. In Tennessee, the last two paragraphs of a proposed constitutional amendment were omitted. In Kansas, the Spanish version of the ballot neglected to inform voters that incomplete forms could be rejected.

About 5,000 absentee ballots are being replaced in Cuyahoga County, Ohio because of even simpler typographical errors. Those problems were discovered after officials discovered that the party affiliations for two candidates in a state House race had been switched.

And although this is no glitch - the courts have ordered it - Rep. Mark Foley's name appears on the Florida 16th District ballot, even though the Republicans are running a replacement candidate. A judge has forbidden the party from even posting signs at polling places reminding voters that a vote for Foley is not a vote for Foley.