Hairy Potter elections

What went wrong with tally?

By Michael Smith And Phillip Yates
Amarillo Globe-News

Light emerged at the end of a a nearly day-long tunnel for some of Potter County's precinct-level candidates after county election officials released unofficial results Wednesday from Tuesday's primary.

The totals announced about 6 p.m. Wednesday, 19 hours after Randall County election officials announced theirs, still didn't contain individual precint numbers.

Election officials spent all day Wednesday rechecking the numbers of voters at all 16 precincts and reviewing information entered in the county's electronic reporting software after a glitch emerged during counting late Tuesday, Potter County Clerk Sue Daniel said.

The audit delayed release of the county's most d voting tallies, but officials are confident in the initial returns, Daniel said.

"We feel this audit is sound and the results are in order," Daniel said.

The new iVotronic system Potter County used Tuesday night comes from Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software, one of three companies authorized to deal with Texas elections.

ES&S spokeswoman Amanda Brown said Potter County's problems arose from a "flash card," or a storage device that uploads computerized tallies to ballots.

Lost or discounted votes should not be a concern because each machine has three memory components that store all information, she said.

"Those three independent redundant memory chips insure that all votes will be accurately captured," Brown said.

ES&S reports its machines performed well across the 144 Texas counties that utilize it, Brown said.

Randall County Clerk Sue Bartolino reported no major counting problems with the county's electronic systems which are run by Hart Intercivic.

As a general rule, counting election returns is a tedious process that must follow strict legal procedures, Bartolino said.

Each step must be taken thoroughly and carefully, she said. "It's not near as simple as people think it is," she said.

Each electronic voting machine comes with paperwork which election judges must fill out as soon as polls close before lugging the equipment to the county clerk's office.

Election officials must then check all equipment for any evidence of tampering and account for every unused paper ballot. After the votes are tallied, the final count must jibe with how many voters judges say came to the polls.

Primary elections multiply the entire process by two as everything must be done for separate Republican and Democratic ballots.

Randall County election officials essentially had to do for 58 precincts what they do for 29 during regular elections.

"Last night, we were slow because with the learning curve of this new equipment we were overly cautious," Bartolino said. "We checked three times and did it once."

Though Tuesday night's returns are unofficial until they are canvassed, Potter County's results arranged lineups for the April 11 runoff elections and decided winners, such as Potter County Precinct 4 Commissioner candidate Alphonso Vaughn.

Vaughn topped Ken Gomez as the Democratic candidate and won't face an opponent in November. But the long wait before finding out was stressful, he said before learning the results about 7:30 p.m.