BERKELEY -- Mayor Tom Bates has taken it upon himself to call for an investigation into voting problems that created obstacles for voters at polling places throughout Alameda County on March 2.

The mayor was also asking city staff to conduct an "analysis of Berkeley's options" in case the problems are not resolved, according to a statement released by Bates' press office.

Berkeley officials say some voters in the city had difficulty casting their votes because of problems with ballot-access card encoders, which disabled the touch-screen voting systems.

Bates' spokesman Cisco DeVries described the problems as "failures of the cards that are supposed to provide the information to the touch screen when the voter comes in."

Countywide, about 200 polling places reported mishaps on March 2.

Bates questioned the county's usage of Diebold Election Systems equipment and called the vote-casting problems "serious."

"Every person needs to be absolutely certain that their vote will count," Bates said in a released statement.

"That is why I am requesting that Alameda County conduct a full investigation of the problems we have seen and issue a public report detailing the findings and remedies prior to the November election," he said.

Bates' request for an investigation has been made in writing to the county Registrar of Voters Brad Clark.

The Berkeley City Council will discuss the matter at its meeting on April 20. DeVries said he did not know what actions would be discussed, but said that in an extreme case, "The city can opt out of the county's election system."

DeVries alleged that county has not adequately communicated its efforts to investigate the election problems, and cities are left largely in the dark about the process.

"We need to get a lot more information about what happened and how it's going to be fixed," he said.

Clark was not immediately available for comment.