Minor problems with voting machines  (NJ)
Pete McCarthy    Gloucester County Times   21 February 2008

Two of Gloucester County's more than 450 voting machines experienced minor technical problems during this month's presidential primary.

Officials assured on Wednesday these errors had no impact on the number of votes the candidates received.

The discrepancies, which were identified in a handful of machines in five New Jersey counties, are now being reviewed by the company that provides the voting machines.

"It looks like it doesn't have anything to do with the results at all," said Mark Harris, director of election operations in Gloucester County. "The vote totals all look solid."

After the Feb. 5 election, the county clerk in Union County questioned some discrepancies in her results.

The numbers from cartridges that print out vote totals and the paper backup didn't match.

The errors have to deal with voter turnout numbers, and not the number of votes tallied.

Others were asked to review their machines and errors were also reported in Bergen, Gloucester, Middlesex and Ocean counties.

Concerning Gloucester County, "In two of these machines, where it said how many Democrats and Republicans voted that day, the breakdown was off by one or two people," explained Attorney General's Office spokesman David Wald.

In all, this happened in 29 machines in the five counties.

Representatives from Sequoia, the company that provides voting machines in New Jersey, were expected to review the matter and meet with election officials today. A spokeswoman said Wednesday her company will continue to search for the cause of the problem.

"It's a question that we need an answer to," Wald said.