Company says human error cause of mixup   (OH)

Mark Shaffer    The Ironton Tribune    14 November 2007

The company that does the programming for Lawrence County’s electronic voting system says human error is to blame for the mix-up in the Hamilton Township trustee race.

According to the results on election night, Allan Blankenship won over Bill Robinson, 374 to 170. The trouble was that the opposite was true.

According to a statement from Election Systems & Software to the Lawrence County Board of Elections, “in this situation, after final modification was received from the county, our staff d all relevant coding, except for coding related to one specific results updating program.”

“As a result of this human error,” the statement continued, “that particular results reporting program did not include the latest information.”
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Because of that, when the unofficial results were released, the Hamilton Township trustee race was incorrect.

ES&S stated that all other relevant programs provided accurate totals for every other race and because of multiple checks and balances, the coding mistake was identified and the results were corrected.

ES&S said the company regrets the mistake and will continue to work with county officials to address this issue.

“It is very important for voters to know that each and every ballot cast was counted and will be accurately reflected in the official results from all races in Lawrence County,” the statement concluded.