11-15-00

By CHRIS HELMS, Staff Writer News & Record

LEXINGTON - The tongue-in-cheek Chicago election advice, "Vote early and vote often," briefly came true in Davidson County last week.

A computer glitch allowed election software to count about 5,000 early and absentee ballots twice during last week's election.

The mix-up didn't change the outcome of any elections because all candidates received the same proportion of extra votes. But the error embarrassed Davidson elections director Ruth Huneycutt.

"I should have caught it," Huneycutt said.

A reporter brought the discrepancy to light on Friday during the county election board's official canvas. Officials corrected the problem on Monday, then sent the revised totals to the state Board of Elections in Raleigh.

The incorrect vote totals appeared only on a report sent to Raleigh on Friday. Vote totals distributed by the media and listed on the Davidson County Web site were correct, Huneycutt said.

The software in question has been used in several elections without incident.

"It had never done it before," Huneycutt said. "I don't know if we hit a key we weren't supposed to hit. I suspect it was a keying error."

Election workers in Davidson County and elsewhere in North Carolina found themselves stretched thinner than usual this year, with nearly a month of 12-hour days. Early voting, in which people could cast ballots for three weeks leading up to the election, plus the regular election duties made for long hours for staffers.

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/dav/votes15.htm

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), November 16, 2000