LAT:

Inadequate staffing, poor communications and balky technology turned election day in Los Angeles County into an anxious quagmire for many voters, whose complaints triggered calls Wednesday by one member of the Board of Supervisors for a “forensic autopsy” on what went wrong.

Voters reported waiting four hours and longer in some locations to cast their ballots. Some bounced from one polling place to the next, searching in vain for shorter lines. At one polling station, a worker said she wept in frustration while desperate voters scratched out their choices on write-in ballots — written in languages they did not speak.

“This is a disgrace,” one voter, who did not leave a name, complained to The Times. He added that the electronic check-in system was “nothing but an unholy mess.”

The messy outcome was a painful comedown for the county supervisors and elections chief Dean Logan, who invested $300 million in the effort after prior elections left votes uncounted and voters missing from the official rolls.

Officials had pledged that the electronic Voting Solutions for All People, or VSAP, system would be easier, more transparent and more secure. They expressed no serious reservations before Tuesday’s election, which included state and local races and the presidential primary.

Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced a motion at a Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday ordering voting officials to report back within 45 days on the excessive wait times and staffing and technical problems. The motion also demands that officials come up with ways to solve the voting problems before the Nov. 3 general election.