Cuyahoga vote board stumbles in vote count test  (OH)

Joe Guillen    Cleveland Plain Dealer    29 February 2008

A possible glitch with its vote-counting equipment put a hitch into Cuyahoga County's hopes of a trouble-free election next week.

A computer that was to upload results from a test batch of ballots failed to read the disc that had been ed into the vote counter. A second test also failed. A smaller capacity disc was then used, and the computer uploaded the results as designed.

"This is not a failure of our system," said Board of Elections Director Jane Platten. "This is what tests are for."

She said dry runs like this help workers learn how to react if a similar failure occurs on election night.

Platten said tests with the higher capacity disc have worked in previous run-throughs.

Workers had not planned to test all 15 vote-counting scanners Friday, but changed their plans after the misfire. Platten said further testing will determine if it is a disc, scanner or software problem.

The failure was embarrassing for the board since the Friday exercise was billed as a "public test."

The board has been hopeful of turning around a string of flawed elections.