Voting Machine Malfunction


Pottawattamie County, Iowa. May 2006, ES&S.
Flaws in ballot programming reverse nine races.

Flawed ballot programming by ES&S reported results of all nine contested primary races incorrectly.*

Pottawattamie County elections deputy Gary Herman said anomalies were noticed almost immediately. Electronic results were posted, but with a disclaimer that ballots would be hand-counted the next day.

The results were dramatic. Every winner in Pottawattamie County's nine contested races turned out, in retrospect, to be a loser. Initial returns that showed incumbent Recorder John Sciortino losing by a margin of 1,245 votes to 1,167 was found to have actually won the election 2,061 votes to 347.

Early reports of the recount showed only one, possibly two, races affected.

* Polk County recorder to contest election. The Des Moines Register, June 24, 2006. Bert Dalmer, Register Staff Writer. Archive

See: ES&S in the News


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