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Election Problem Log - 2004 to 2009
Check out our other problem logs!
VotersUnite! began this problem log with the November 2004 election. It continued its compilation of problems reported in the media by adding news stories about subsequent elections, through 2009. See also: Failures by vendor and Failures by state.
Sort Order:               
Date Problem Type State
Vendor
Description
11/6/2009 Machine malfunction PA ESS Lackawanna County. Flawed ballot programming on the M100 ballot scanners resulted in a failure to count up to 2,452 straight-party votes for two city candidates. Story Archive Story2 Archive2
11/4/2009 Machine malfunction PA ESS Indiana County. M100 optical scanners counted the number of ballots wrong. The number of ballots was an even number in 61 of 69 precincts, suggesting that the scanners counted each sheet of the 2-sheet ballot as a separate ballot. But that explanation doesn't account for a report of 642 ballots cast by 237 registered voters at Cherryhill 1. Even full turnout would have been just 474 pieces of paper. Election workers are still trying to find out what happened. Story Archive
11/5/2008 Machine malfunction PA ESS Centre County. Officials said there was a difference in how one of the new Model 100 optical scanner machines counted the votes in the 26th precinct, as opposed to the actual number of ballots cast. Workers were counting the ballots by hand as of noon. Similar vote count problems with two other State College precincts were corrected early Wednesday. Story Archive
5/16/2007 Machine malfunction PA ESS Luzerne County. Wrong ballots on the iVotronic. The candidates in Region 2 appeared on the Region 3 ballot and the candidates in Region 3 appeared on the Region 2 ballot, according to Leonard Piazza, director of the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections. “Due to an oversight we had the wrong ballots on those machines,” Piazza said. Story Archive
5/16/2007 Machine malfunction PA ESS Westmoreland County. Poll workers in several precincts had trouble printing zero tapes on the iVotronics. Zero tapes show that no votes have been cast yet -- that the ballot box is empty. Election Bureau Director Jim Montini said the zero tapes could be printed any time before the polls close. Story Archive
5/16/2007 Machine malfunction PA ESS Allegheny County. Various problems with the iVotronic touch screens: undefined malfunctions turned voters away from at least one polling place; write-in feature either didn't work or was unintuitive; voters complained that the machines didn't allow them to undervote in races where they could vote for more than one candidate; some said the machine made them start over. Story Archive
5/15/2007 Machine malfunction PA ESS Centre County. Computer malfunction took down all the iVotronics at one polling site for two hours. Story Archive
11/9/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Luzerne County. Vote-switching reported on the ES&S iVotronic.
Evelyn Graham, a Hazleton City Councilwoman, said she touched the box for Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann, and it highlighted as her selection. But when she moved on to the next race and picked Republican senatorial candidate Rick Santorum, Graham said she noticed that Rendell’s name had become highlighted as her selection. Graham said she returned to the governor’s race, de-selected Rendell and selected Swann. “I did it four to six times, and each time it changed back to Rendell.” ... "I do not believe that there is an honest election possible anymore with these machines."
Another voter had her vote for Republican Santorum vote changed to Democrat Casey. Story Archive

Follow-up, Piazza established a procedure to attempt to prevent future problems. Archive2

11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Vote-switching. State Republicans asked Secretary of State Pedro Cortes to investigate what they said were instances in at least 12 counties -- including Allegheny, Butler and Crawford -- where voters allegedly tried to vote for Republican candidates but that the machines reflected Democratic votes. Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Lawrence County. Some people walked away from polling places without casting ballots because about one in nine ES&S iVotronic voting machines malfunctioned. Marlene Gabriel, election director, said most malfunctions occurred because the machines had not been properly tested by the vendor. By 10am all polling places except one had at least one working machine. "All in all, it went pretty well," Gabriel said. Story Archive Story2 Archive2
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Westmoreland County. Every one of the over 800 ES&S iVotronic machines had a programming error that caused the machines to act as if it weren't election day. Some shut down early. Others never started at all. The time stamp in the machines was wrong. Story Archive Story2 Archive2

11/9/06 -- The machines, instead of automatically loading ballot after ballot for voters, required that poll workers manually keep the computers on after each ballot was cast. If a poll worker pressed a button when prompted by the computer to end the voting, the machines shut off and could not be restarted. County leaders insisted ES&S Inc. of Nebraska, which supplied the computerized machines, made the error. A company spokeswoman on Tuesday blamed the county for programming the software glitch.

"These issues were a result of mainly human error... " said Loida Esbri, a spokesman for the Department of State. Story Archive

11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Cambria County. Vote-switching on ES&S iVotronics. "workers reported that some voters pushed the touch-screen button for one candidate and got the another candidate. Or, voters tried to vote a straight ticket and had problems." Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Butler County. Vote-switching on the iVotronics alleged by State Republicans. Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Crawford County. Vote-switching on the iVotronics alleged by State Republicans. Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Allegheny County. Vote-switching on the iVotronics alleged by State Republicans. Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Centre County. Vote-switching. Reports that some iVotronics would only register a vote for Gov. Rendell, that others refused to accept a vote for Rendell. Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Centre County. In 8-10 precincts, poll workers had trouble getting iVotronics to print the zero tapes, which indicate no votes have been cast at the start of the day. Story Archive
11/8/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Erie County. Two iVotronic voting machines were taken out of service after it was confirmed that they were switching voters votes. Story Archive
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Cumberland County. A voter reports vote-switching on the iVotronics. Just returned from voting in Lemoyne, PA. Two of the five voting machines were not working. When asked why the machines were down, a poll worker said the two machines were automatically casting votes opposite of the ones selected. I believe the machines were called "VOTRONIC"
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Allegheny County. ES&S iVotronics were not working at seven polling places early on election day. 20 units were taken out of service. Some of the machines weren't "zeroing out", necessary to ensure that the electronic ballot box is empty. Story Archive Story2 Archive
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Lebanon County. iVotronic machines malfunction, causing voters to use paper ballots. Story Archive
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Adams County. Undefined problems with the ES&S M100 scanners. County is investigating. Story Archive
5/16/2006 Machine malfunction PA ESS Centre County. Vote-flipping on the iVotronic not caused by calibration. The calibration of a touch-screen voting machine in a State College precinct was checked and found to be working properly after a voter had difficulty, McKinley said. Story Archive
11/8/2005 Machine malfunction PA ESS Cumberland County. Ballot misprogramming error. ES&S made yet another ballot programming error on the optical scanners, causing a miscount and a possible reversal of the initial election results. Ballots will be scanned again, and they will be hand counted. Story Archive

Update: In the initial count, Republican Keating beat Democrat Rhoades, 1,650 to 1,468. The second machine count and the hand count both showed Rhoades winning by 2 votes - 1,703 to 1,701. Story Archive

Records: 1-24 of 24
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