Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 09/11/04)

York County, South Carolina. November 2002. Punch card.
Ballot programming error leaves votes uncounted.

An error in the ballot definition file for the punch card machines caused votes for the South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture to be uncounted. The punch number for the straight ticket had been set up incorrectly. Changing the program to recognize the correct number allowed the machine to count the ballots correctly.*

* Machine glitch keeps votes from being counted. The Herald, Rock Hill, SC, November 7, 2002.
Details confirmed in conversation with Wanda Hemphill, York County Elections Director. June 4, 2004.

News stories make it rapidly apparent that
electronic voting is not reliable, accurate, or secure.
Any one who claims otherwise is either ignorant or deceptive.
~ Joseph Holder