'I Was Not Satisfied': Supervisor Janice Hahn Calls For Investigation Following Super Tuesday Voting Problems
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County spent 10 years and $300 million developing the new computerized voting system that made its debut in this week's election, but after what happened on Super Tuesday, it was clear that there are serious problems and one member of the Board of Supervisors wants answers.
"I was not satisfied," L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said.
After photos, videos and posts to social media about hours-long waits made it around the country, Hahn demanded an investigation.
"Those machines that weren't working and were out of order, absolutely unacceptable," Hahn said. "And then I understand that there were technicians that attempted to fix those machines and couldn't do it."
The taxpayer funded voting initiative raised concerns among some critics back in February with at least one person saying voters should have "zero" confidence in the machines. That CBS2 investigation found published reports of problems with machines manufactured by the same company that built the L.A. County machines back in 2016 in Utah.
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There were also reports of problems with similar machines in the Philippines.
But Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, who sold the idea to the board, said at that time that the machines would work.
"I think voters should have a great deal of confidence (in the machines)," he said.
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The day after Super Tuesday, Logan refused a request for an interview.
"It didn't feel like (Logan) was prepared for the long lines on voting day," Hahn said. "It doesn't feel like he was prepared in terms of having enough workers at the polling places, and it doesn't feel like he was prepared to have the machines break down."
A spokesperson for the registrar's office said they did not yet know how many machines malfunctioned or what caused the problems. They said they were still conducting an analysis, though no timetable on when that would be done was released.