Glitch prevents Manatee County from issuing final election results  (FL)

Christopher O'Donnell    Herald Tribune   04 November 2008

MANATEE COUNTY A software problem is preventing Manatee elections officials from counting nine of the county's voting precincts and two-thirds of the ballots cast during early voting.

When the ballots are attempted to be uploaded into the county voting system, they get an error message that prevents the tallying of those votes.

As of 9:40 p.m., 88 precincts have been tallied. In all, 20,165 early votes were cast.

County officials are contacting the Texas-based company that makes the software for their election machines, Premier Election Solutions.

Elections Supervisor Bob Sweat said he's never had this problem before, and can't be sure when things will be sorted out.

"Normally by this time we're down here hooting and hollering," Sweat said.