Disenfranchised by Diebold. AKA, When is a Voter Registration Card not a Voter Registration Card?

This morning I went in to vote in the Maryland primary election. I had a photo ID, just in case. The poll workers were professional and helpful. It seemed like things were heading for another successful vote. Yet when I went to sign in, I was told that my name was not popping up on the machine. We did a few permutations of my name, hoping things would clear up. My wife, who registered at the same time as I did, had her name pop up without any problem. Eventually, the poll worker said that I may not be registered because the system didn't have my name in it.

That's when I busted out my voter registration card. The poll worker was surprised and called over the chief judge (who was both friendly and more than happy to go to bat to get to the bottom of things). Meanwhile, I sat down to fill out a provisional ballot. The chief judge called up the main office, I spent a bit of time on hold, gave them various identity-checking/confirming information, and waited patiently for folks to clear things up.

Eventually, I was told, "You're not registered." This was a fascinating statement to hear, so I said to the woman on the phone, "You sent me a voter registration card, doesn't that mean I'm registered?" Apparently not.

But now we had another problem, I'd already filled out my provisional ballot. Now comes the even crazier part. I was told that I needed to spoil my own ballot. I objected -- not only was I a registered voter (and had the voter registration card to prove it), but I was now being told that I had to purposefully spoil my own ballot. There seemed to be something highly undemocratic (not to mention a bit disconcerting) about the notion of purposefully spoiling a ballot that you really wanted to cast. So I objected and was told that they needed to void my ballot. I said that I did not want to spoil my ballot and that if it needed to be spoiled that the poll workers should be the ones to do it. They said they could not and that I had to do it -- which I objected to again.

We went back and forth several times -- it wasn't an argument, more of an absurd performance piece in front of a gymnasium full of voters. Eventually, realizing that I'd already been attempting to vote for an hour, I filled in every bubble on the ballot (as instructed). In the end, score one for Diebold -- apparently, a voter registration card in Maryland isn't necessarily indicative of being registered to vote. I did fill out the necessary forms to (re?)register -- but the whole episode strikes me as highly irregular -- how can it be that a database counts more than a tangible document? Clearly something is quite broken with Diebold's system here in Maryland -- I'd like to think that I was the one voter in the state to face an unassailable wall of Diebold illogic, but I worry that others have suffered similar fates.