Voter computer glitches

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Glitch found, corrected in Wichita County election counting system

The machine has been used in other elections, but Lueck said this is a one-time mistake.
"It had to do with the header card. I don't recall any problems with header cards in the past," Lueck said. "It's tough to speculate why it held those numbers."

TRNOnline

Neb. Firm Responds To SD Election Night Glitches

SIOUX FALLS (AP) -- The company whose technical problems stalled vote counting in Adams County, Neb., also was called on to fix a computer chip glitch that delayed results in Davison County for more than seven hours on election night.

In Adams County, computer software from Elections Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., had a coding problem, Adams County Election Commissioner Chris Lewis said.

Attempts to clear up the problem, including using a backup machine, had failed, Lewis said.

Midwest News

Voting process hits few snags

An error in the computer tabulation of absentee ballots required McFadyen to reload data a second time from several machines late Tuesday.

Refletor

Correct voting locations mailed to Wallingford residents

The postcards were sent out because letters bearing incorrect polling place information were mailed to voters last week.

Last week, a Milford printer acknowledged that an error in its computer section was responsible for the foul-up.

Wallingford underwent redistricting as a result of the 2000 Census, and the town's redrawn electoral map consolidates the 14 previous districts into nine.

New Haven Register

State computer system, ballot challenges frustrate voters

White said that glitches in a statewide computer system prevented some names on the voter rolls from being printed out on the list poll workers used to verify voter registration.

Daily World

Despite some glitches, new election machines running smoothly

ATLANTA - Voters praised the ease and speed of Georgia's new touch-screen voting, although results didn't come in any faster and several counties suffered through minor glitches.

Ledger-Enquirer

Still no official winner in governor's race

However, the Baldwin County probate judge placed blame for the confusion on computer problems. Johns said ‘‘a programming glitch in the software’’ used by the county originally showed Siegelman with 19,070 votes, the number given to The Associated Press by Baldwin County officials Tuesday night.

Daily Home

Chip glitch hands victory to wrong candidate

ABILENE - A Scurry County election error reversed the outcomes in two commissioner races.

A defective computer chip in the county's optical scanner misread ballots Tuesday night and incorrectly tallied a landslide victory for Republicans. Democrats actually won by wide margins.

Huston Chronicle

Alabama governor calls for recount

Chuck Grainger, general counsel for the Alabama secretary of state, said a computer glitch led to the first figure. The glitch was fixed, and the latter figure of 13,000 has been certified by Baldwin County.

CNN

Election 2002: Glitch causes delay in Collier vote-counting

The general election didn't come off without a hitch in Collier County, with officials rebooting computer tabulation machines after preliminary reports spit out wacky vote totals that were off by nearly 38,000 votes.

Naples News

House race in recount, Broward had computer glitch

Broward County officials appeared to discover more than 100,000 ballots, which they said was a "minor software thing."

Dayton Journal

Both Riley, Siegelman say they won election as governor

At the epicenter of the budding fiasco was the Baldwin County probate judge's office in Bay Minette, where officials blamed a computer snafu for mistakenly reporting Tuesday night that Siegelman got 6,300 more votes from the heavily Republican county than he actually received.

AL.com

Voting-system glitch found by accident

Trying to fix the balloting problem, O'Neal discovered a far more serious glitch -- that voting machines were not crediting individual candidates with straight-party-ticket votes.

Star Telegram

Ballot counter troubles

All eyes were on Davison County during the wee hours today because a vote-counting machine malfunctioned, leaving in doubt statehouse and county races, and possibly the contest for U.S. Senate.

Daily Republic

Probate offices under scrutiny statewide after voting dispute

It's a thought Underwood said he doesn't necessarily believe. He would like to know more about the reported problem with the vote count in Baldwin County.

"If that computer printout of all the numbers said 19,000 (votes for Siegelman instead of 12,000), I'm very concerned," he said. "I just don't know what the facts are because there are so many rumors out there."

Times Daily

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2002

Answers

Recount decision may come today

However, a computer error at the York County elections office forced a ballot recount Wed-nesday, and Sharpe's margin of victory widened to more than 1 percent of the unofficial total.

Herald Online

Recount halted, governor forced to find new challenge

The controversy centers around Baldwin County, where a corrected computer error changed Siegelman’s vote total to 12,736 votes from 19,070 votes.

The Outlook

Certified count adds 1,252 votes in Madison County

"What we did was probably an overkill," Smith said. "Once we realized there was a computer error the other night ... we felt like we needed to take these extra steps to ensure accuracy."

Gadson Times

The big change was in Baldwin County

But most of those changes occurred in two counties: Baldwin, where Siegelman's vote total fell dramatically because of what local officials called a computer error, and Autauga, whose Tuesday night returns failed to include two voting boxes.

al.com

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002


NE - Once again, software cause of election night confusion

">State computer system, ballot challenges frustrate voters

By STEVE RUSSELL

World Staff Writer

One hundred and thirty-seven Phillips County residents who went to the polls Tuesday will have to wait until tomorrow to find out if their votes counted.

The Phillips County Election Commission will review 221 absentee ballots, 137 ballots from the polls and 48 early voting ballots that were challenged for a variety of reasons.

With 406 challenged ballots, a number of local elections hang in the balance, including a Marvell mayoral race, the contest for West Helena city attorney and a Helena city council position.

Both The Daily World and Joann Smith, the county election commission chairwoman, received calls from several voters complaining that their ballots were separated into the challenged pile for unknown reasons.

According to Phillips County Clerk Linda White, there were two main reasons voters had their ballots challenged.

White said that glitches in a statewide computer system prevented some names on the voter rolls from being printed out on the list poll workers used to verify voter registration.

Even though the clerk's office could see the name in the computer, White said, the error prevented the printing, and those voters' ballots were labeled as challenged.

She also said there were a number of people who have changed addresses since the last election but have not officially notified the county of a change in address. When many of those people went to their regular polling places yesterday, their registration was challenged because of the address discrepancy.

White and Smith said that voters need to identify the clerk's office when they move so the county clerk can update their voter registration card.

A higher-than-usual number of poll watchers, local residents chosen by local candidates to oversee the election process, also produced a higher number of challenged ballots, with many poll watchers pointing out issues over address discrepancies and incomplete registration information. Poll watchers also challenged voters whose names were not filed in the book poll workers used to verify registration.

According to election law, Smith said, each candidate is allowed to appoint one poll watcher per polling place.

Despite the discrepancies, Smith said the commission tried to ensure everyone got the chance to vote.

"The poll workers were instructed to let anyone vote on a challenged ballot," she said. "They also were instructed to give the voters a reason why their ballot was challenged."

She added that there may have been some frustrated voters early in the morning in some of the more rural precincts, as the poll workers were using cell phones on an ALLTEL network that was down during the early hours of Election Day. The poll workers could not reach the county clerk's office to verify registration in some cases.

When asked whether a large number of voters were turned away by the various glitches, Smith said, "I hope not."

Papillion Times

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2002


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