Touch-screen machine glitch crops up again, and slows vote count tonight  (FL)

FLORIDA TODAY • August 26, 2008

A glitch with touch-screen voting machines in about 50 precincts has slowed election returns tonight, leaving the county with only about 58 percent of precincts for more than hour. The results are now almost all in after a lengthy delay.

The problem that the touch-screen machines failed to transmit data by modem to the elections office is one that the supervisor of elections office has been aware of for some time. It has cropped up in past elections.

With the data unable to be transmitted back by those machines, the "votes" had to be trucked back to the elections office in Viera. Elections officials said the last of the trucks arrived around 10:30 p.m. and results were being finalized just before 11 p.m.

Elections officials said the touch-screen machines are typically used by voters with disabilities, and the number of votes cast on the machines was very small.

Results from entire precincts, however, were held up while the touch-screen results were transported back to the main office for tabulation.