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Malfunctions and Miscounts, Sorted by State

Here are brief descriptions of some of the voting equipment malfunctions reported in the news prior to 2005, listed by State. We also have most of these failures included in pdf files that are grouped by vendor.

NOTE: Virtually all of the failures described in these links occurred on equipment that was "federally certified," that is, certified by NASED (National Association of State Election Directors).

Click a state abbreviation to go directly to the malfunctions listed for that state. Click a question/checkmark to read more about the failure.

U.S. AL AZ AR CA CO DE FL GA HI IA IL IN KS LA MA MD MI MO MS NC NE NJ NM NV OH PA SC SD TN TX VA WA WI WY

179 DRE failures
in 27 pages (pdf)


Vote-Switching Software Provided by Vendors:
Map handout (181 Kb)
and
Details (125 KB)

Details sorted by state (168 Kb)

United States (and Venezuela)
United States.
"Human errors" cause election miscounts and other problems.
United States. November 2000.
Inaccurate tabulation equipment lost presidential votes.
United States, 2002-2004. ES&S and Sequoia.
E-voting usability facts contradict proponents' assertions.
U.S. Counties that use ES&S voting systems. July, 2004.
Software bugs affect iVotronic machines and Unity software throughout the country.
Early voting in the U.S. October, 2004.
Electronic poll book failures cause severe voting delays.
Early voting in the U.S. October, 2004.
Voters and poll workers blamed for voting machine flaws.
United States. November, 2004.
GAO: election investigation is warranted.
United States. November, 2004.
E-voting failures cause long lines, disenfranchise voters.
United States. November, 2004.
Congressmen request GAO to investigate election equipment and other election irregularities.
Venezuela. May 2000. ES&S.
National election postponed because of problems with the voting system.
Alabama
Baldwin County, Alabama. November, 2002. ES&S.
Data-pack malfunction caused incorrect initial outcome.
Arizona
Arizona. November, 2004.
Senator John McCain describes a "disgraceful" presidential election.
Maricopa County, Arizona. September, 2004. ES&S.
Optical scan recount overturns results of first optical scan count.
Pima County, Arizona. 1998. Diebold.
Tally errors in three out of three elections.
Arkansas

Ballot programming errors in three Arkansas counties, May 2004. ES&S.
ES&S programmers made three different types of errors.

Carroll County, Arkansas. November, 2004. ES&S.
ES&S made a ballot programming error.
Craighead County, Arkansas. May, 2004. ES&S.
Ballot programming error assigned all votes to one candidate.
Crittenden County, Arkansas. November, 2004. Diebold.
More than 11% of the optical scan ballots failed to register a vote for president.
Fulton County, Arkansas. May, 2004. ES&S.
Optical scan chip malfunctioned, reason unknown.
Phillips County, Arkansas. May 2006. ES&S
Flawed ballot programming fails to count 432 Democratic votes in primary.
Pike County, Arkansas. November, 2004. ES&S.
A damaged optical scanning machine lost nearly 700 votes.
Poinsett County, Arkansas. November, 2006. ES&S iVotronic
Mayoral candidate's vote was lost
Pulaski County, Arkansas. November, 2000. ES&S.
Touch screen registers the wrong choice.
Pulaski County, Arkansas. May 2006. ES&S
Malfunctions and misprogramming cause election problems.
St. Francis County, Arkansas. June 2006. ES&S optical scan.
Flaws in ballot programming reverse Senate District 16 runoff.
White County, Arkansas. June 2006. ES&S
Runoff election is "a royal mess."
California
Alameda County, California. October, 2003. Diebold.
GEMS tally software awards one candidate's votes to another.
California. July, 2005. Diebold.
Secretary of State denies certification due to 10% failure rate during testing.
California. August, 2004. Sequoia.
Paper trail showed the machine missed votes in Spanish.
California. April, 2004. Diebold.
State began investigation of Diebold for fraud.
Alameda County, California. March, 2004. Diebold.
Bug in optical scan software miscounted absentee ballots.
Kern County, California. March, 2007. Diebold.
Multiple counts produce multiple results.
Napa County, California. March, 2004. Sequoia.
Optical scanners passed pre-election tests but failed to detect 6,692 votes.
Orange County, California. March, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
Massive dienfranchisement; no paper ballots.
Orange County, California. March, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
Nine eSlate machines break down in one precinct.
Riverside County, California. November, 2000. Sequoia.
Sequoia AVC Edge paperless voting machine dropped votes.
Riverside County, California. November, 2003. Sequoia.
Unsupervised technicians adjust machines after battery problems.
San Diego County, California. March, 2004. Diebold.
Many problems, including failure of 24% of "smart card" encoders. Cause unknown.
San Diego, California. March, 2004. Diebold.
Optical scanners miscount 2,821 votes.
San Diego County, California. March 2004. Diebold.
AccuVote TSx paperless touch-screen voting machine lost 10 votes.
San Francisco, California. November, 2000. ES&S.
Precinct-count optical scanner yield huge discrepancies.
San Mateo County, California. June 2006. Hart InterCivic eSlate.
Errors on test ballots - cause is uncertain.
Santa Clara County, California. November, 2003. Sequoia.
DRE Battery problem "fixed" by unidentified Sequoia technicians.
Santa Clara County, California. March, 2004. Sequoia.
Blind voters criticize paperless electronic voting machines.
Colorado
Boulder County, Colorado. November, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
"Ballot Now" reads ballots differently in three different tests.
Boulder County, Colorado. October, 2005. Hart Intercivic Ballot Now.
Folds in ballots caused absentee ballot system to misread votes.
Delaware
New Castle County, Delaware. November 2000. Danaher Controls.
Paperless voting machines show 3.6% blank votes for president.
Florida
Florida. November 2002. Optical scan vs. Touch screen.
Undervote rate is much higher on touch-screen voting machines.
Florida. March, 2004.
Sun-Sentinel study shows significantly more blank ballots are recorded by electronic machines than appear on paper ballots.
Florida. October, 2004.
Officials finally acknowledge recount is impossible on paperless machines.
Florida. 2004 election. Day 1.
Three counties started early voting with ballot and machine problems.
Florida. November, 2004.
Touch screen discard rate is twice as high as optical scan.
Broward County, Florida. November 2002. ES&S.
Tabulation software loses 22% of the votes.
Broward County, Florida. November 2002. ES&S.
Machines register votes for opponents.
Broward County, Florida. January, 2004. ES&S.
134 blank ballots can't be manually inspected; Florida law violated.
Broward County, Florida. March, 2004. ES&S.
Wordy ballot requires paper in addition to touch screen.
Broward County, Florida. November, 2004. ES&S.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Broward County, Florida. November, 2004. ES&S.
Software reached its limit and counted backwards.
Broward County, Florida. November, 2004. ES&S.
DRE malfunctions close down early voting site.
Broward County, Florida. March, 2005. ES&S.
Commissioner's contest fails to appear on iVotronic screens.
Hillsborough County, Florida. April 2002. Sequoia.
Vote-data transmission failed.
Hillsborough County, Florida. March, 2003. Sequoia.
Vote-data transmission failed ... again.
Hillsborough County, Florida. August, 2004. Sequoia.
245 "test votes" were determined to be real votes.
Hillsborough County, Florida. August, 2004. Sequoia.
Central tabulator's indexing system malfunctioned.
Hillsborough County, Florida. September, 2004. Sequoia.
Cause of high undervotes remains a mystery.
Miami-Dade County, Florida. April, 2002. ES&S.
Ballot programming error by ES&S gave votes to the wrong candidate.
Miami-Dade County, Florida. September, 2002. ES&S.
Paperless electronic voting machines lost 21.5% of the votes in some precincts.
Miami-Dade County, Florida. May, 2004. ES&S.
Audit bugs found in iVotronics.
Miami-Dade County, Florida. August, 2004. ES&S.
14,253 voters file complaints reporting problems -- both old and new.
Miami-Dade County, Florida. March, 2005. ES&S iVotronic.
Programming error fails to count votes; calls six elections into question.
Miami-Dade County, Florida. May, 2005. ES&S iVotronic.
New evidence shows both phantom votes and lost votes in the November election.
Orange County, Florida. November, 2004. ES&S.
Software reached its limit and counted backwards.
Palm Beach County, Florida. November, 2000. Punch card.
Palm Beach Post study blames butterfly ballot for Gore's loss.
Palm Beach County, Florida. March, 2002. Sequoia.
AVC Edge paperless voting machines registered votes for the wrong candidate in a remarkable upset race.
Palm Beach County, Florida. March 2002. Sequoia.
AVC Edge paperless voting machines fail to count 78 votes in an upset election.
Palm Beach County, Florida. March 2002. Sequoia.
Touch screens froze up, registered incorrect vote.
Palm Beach County, Florida. October, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens fail in the second day of early voting.
Palm Beach County, Florida. October, 2004. Sequoia.
User-unfriendly design of e-voting machines caused poll workers to err.
Palm Beach County, Florida. November, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Sarasota County, Florida. March, 2004. ES&S.
189 votes lost by touch-screen machines.
Union County, Florida. September, 2002. ES&S.
Optical scan ballot programming error incorrectly gave all votes in one race to one candidate.
Volusia County, Florida. November 2000. Diebold.
AccuVote Optical Scanner inexplicably subtracts 16,022 votes.
Georgia
Cobb County, Georgia. September, 2005. Diebold DRE.
285 electronic ballots were completely blank; officials don't care.
DeKalb County, Georgia. July, 2004. Diebold.
Paperless voting machines reject memory cards, overheat and register votes incorrectly.
Georgia. July, 2004. Diebold.
Touch screens show 14% undervote in U.S. Senate race.
Clayton County, Georgia. July, 2004. Diebold.
The Diebold printery was over two weeks late delivering printed ballots.
Clayton County, Georgia. July and August, 2004. Diebold.
Delay in ballot printing delays absentee voting again.
DeKalb and Chatham Counties, Georgia. July, 2004. Diebold.
AccuVote TS paperless electronic voting machines malfunction.
Fulton County, Georgia. July, 2004. Diebold.
Ballot secrecy of early voters is violated by touch screen machines.
Putnam County, Georgia. July, 2004. Diebold.
Optical scanners and touch-screens both malfunction.
Hawaii
Hawaii. November, 1998. ES&S.
Optical scanners malfunction, requiring a state-wide recount.
Honolulu, Hawaii. September, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
eSlate malfunctioned when battery was low.
Honolulu, Hawaii. September, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
Electronic voting machine presents invalid selections.
Illinois
Lake County,Illinois. April, 2003. ES&S.
Ballot programming errors caused 4 incorrect results.
Indiana
Uncertified software found in four Indiana counties. May 2004. ES&S.
ES&S had installed uncertified iVotronic software because the certified version didn't count votes correctly.
LaPorte County, Indiana. November, 2004. ES&S.
Software reports 300 voters in every precinct.
Vanderburgh County, Indiana. November, 2004. ES&S.
Phantom votes appear in the electronic totals ... and other troubles.
Iowa
Pottawattamie County, Iowa. June 2006. ES&S M100.
Flawed ballot programming changes outcomes in nine contests.
Pottawattamie County, Iowa. June 9, 2006. ES&S M100.
Flawed ballot programming changes outcomes in at least one contest.
Kansas
Johnson County,Kansas. April, 2002. Diebold.
Unknown software error perverts outcome in six races.
Clay County, Kansas. August, 2002. ES&S.
Central-Count optical scanner reversed the totals for two candidates.
Louisiana
Louisiana. November, 2003. ES&S.
Flawed machines malfunctioned in the election.
Ascension Parish and Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. November, 2002. ES&S.
Paperless Votronics overheated, locked-up, shut down while voters were voting.
New Orleans, Louisiana. November, 2004. Sequoia.
Paperless voting machines break down at the start of election day.
Maryland
Maryland. November, 2002. Diebold.
Republican vote choices displayed wrong, possibly recorded wrong.
Maryland. November, 2004. Diebold.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Prince George County, Maryland. September, 2004. Diebold.
Central modem fails; and touch screen won't display Democratic choices.
Rockville, Maryland. September, 2004. Diebold.
County officials panic when election judge threatens to diagnose machine malfunction.
Rockville, Maryland. September, 2004. Diebold.
Touch screen demo fails the Senator's test.
Maryland. November, 2004. Diebold.
Malfunctions, lost votes, and other problems with the DREs.
Montgomery County, Maryland. March, 2005. Diebold.
IT report shows that 7% of the machines malfunctioned in the county.
Massachusetts
Marblehead, Massachusetts. May, 2004. Diebold.
Manual count overturns results of optical scan count.
Uxbridge, Massachusetts. April, 2004. Diebold.
Optical scan failed to read 171 ballots.
Michigan
Muskegon, Michigan. August, 2004. ES&S.
Optical scanners report wrong outcome by failing to detect light marks.
Mississippi
Forrest County, Mississippi. May, 2005. ES&S optical scanner.
Infrared scanner "corrects" visible light scanner misread.
Hinds County, Mississippi. November 4, 2003. Advanced Voting Solutions.
AVS WINvote Voting Systems wouldn't start up, overheated and broke down; a new election was held months later.
Hinds County, Mississippi. May, 2005. AVS WINVote.
Batteries failed within minutes after the election opened.
Missouri
Missouri. November, 2004 Scenario.
Fax failures disenfranchise unknown numbers of military.
Nebraska
Adams County, Nebraska. November, 2002. ES&S.
Machine malfunctions delayed results.
Lancaster County, Nebraska. November, 2004. ES&S.
Phantom votes are added by optical scanners.
Sarpy County, Nebraska. November, 2002. ES&S.
Optical scanners report incorrect election outcome.
Sarpy County, Nebraska. November, 2004. ES&S.
Phantom votes are added by optical scanners.
Nevada
Clark County, Nevada. July, 1996. Sequoia.
Touch screen malfunctions, receives state certification.
Clark County, Nevada. September, 2004. Sequoia.
New software introduced a new bug that delayed results.
Elko County, Nevada. December, 2004. Sequoia.
271 votes were not uploaded from memory cartridges.
New Jersey
Morris County, New Jersey. June, 2004. Sequoia
Problems reading vote data from electronic voting machines.
New Mexico
New Mexico. December, 2004.
Phantom votes appear in the presidential totals.
Bernalillo County, New Mexico. November 2000. Global Election Systems (now Diebold).
Ballot programming error counts 67,000 votes wrong.
Bernalillo County, New Mexico. 2002-2004. Sequoia.
Tally software adds thousands of phantom votes.
Bernalillo County, New Mexico. November, 2004.
8,656 phantom votes reported in the certified election results.
Bernalillo County, New Mexico. November, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Bernalillo County, New Mexico. November, 2002. Sequoia.
Election management software failed to count 25% of the votes.
Dona Ana County, New Mexico. June, 2004. Sequoia.
Insight Optical Scanners counted ballots incorrectly in pre-election testing and were used anyway.
San Juan County, New Mexico. November, 2004. Danaher.
1,843 election-day phantom votes reported in Precinct 51.
Sandoval County, New Mexico. October, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Sandoval County, New Mexico. October, 2004. Sequoia.
Republican votes change to Democrat or Green on the screen.
Taos County, New Mexico. November 2002. Sequoia.
Optech optical scanner ballot programming error assigns votes to the wrong candidate.
North Carolina
Burke County, North Carolina. November, 2004. Unilect.
Electronic voting machines register 11% blank presidential votes.
Carteret County, North Carolina. November, 2004. Unilect.
Memory limitation on DRE caused over 4500 votes to be permanently lost.
Craven County, North Carolina. November, 2004. ES&S.
Tabulation software fails to give error warning.
Craven County, North Carolina. October, 2004. ES&S.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Carteret County, North Carolina. November, 2004.
4,532 permanently lost votes blamed on "human error."
Guilford County, North Carolina. Fall, 2003. ES&S.
Votronic Voting machines lose 354 ballots.
Guilford County, North Carolina. November, 2004. ES&S.
Software reached its limit and counted backwards.
Onslow County, North Carolina. November, 2004. ES&S.
Programming error causes errors in results.
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. July 1998. Microvote.
Touch screen machines shut down when voters scroll through ballots.
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. November, 2004. Microvote.
Machine tally was wrong; required manual recount.
Pender County, North Carolina. July, 2004. Microvote Infinity
One of the county's 74 machines wouldn't tally the votes.
Robeson County, North Carolina. September, 2002. Diebold.
Optical scan ballot programming error caused failure in 31 of 41 precincts.
Wake County, North Carolina. November 2002. ES&S.
iVotronic paperless touch-screen voting machines lose 436 votes.
Wayne County, North Carolina. November, 2002. ES&S.
Ballot programming error omits party-line votes from tally.
Ohio
Ohio. November, 2004.
Machine problems plague Ohio, cause long voter lines.
Franklin County, Ohio. November, 2004. Danaher.
Phantom votes appear in the presidential totals.
Franklin County, Ohio. November, 2004. Danaher.
Software reports 3,893 extra votes for Bush.
Mahoning County, Ohio. November, 2004. ES&S.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Sandusky County, Ohio. November, 2004. ES&S.
Phantom votes are added by optical scanners.
Pennsylvania
Beaver County, Pennsylvania. January, 2005. Unilect.
Undervote rate soars with the use of DREs.
Berks County, Pennsylvania. May, 2005. Danaher.
Votes were lost on the Danaher 1242 Shouptronic paperless voting machines.
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. November, 2005. ES&S.
Flawed ballot programming gives race to losing candidate.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. February, 2005. Unilect.
DRE malfunctions during official re-examination.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. April, 2005. Unilect.
Patriot DRE decertified in the state ... twice.
Mercer County, Pennsylvania. November, 2004. Unilect.
Touch screens malfunction after successful testing.
Mercer County, Pennsylvania. November, 2004. Unilect.
DRE records 83% blank presidential votes.
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. November 1995 and April 1996. Microvote.
Malfunctions, uncertified software, lawsuits.
South Carolina
Charleston County, South Carolina. May, 2005. ES&S iVotronic.
Software error made candidate names hard to read.
Georgetown County, South Carolina. November, 2004. Unilect.
Phantom votes appear in the electronic totals.
Jasper County, South Carolina. June, 2004. MicroVote.
Infinity paperless machines counted 1500 more votes than the number of voters.
Kershaw County, South Carolina. April, 2005. ES&S.
Initial totals show more than four (4!) times as many votes as voters.
Lexington County, South Carolina. November, 2004. ES&S.
200 votes stuck in a broken machine.
York County, South Carolina. November 2002. Punch card.
Ballot programming error leaves votes uncounted.
South Dakota
South Dakota. November, 2002. ES&S.
Optical scanner double-counted votes.
Tennessee
Putnam County, Tennessee. August, 2002. MicroVote.
None of the totals matched up with the correct candidates.
Sumner County, Tennessee. May, 2005. Microvote.
Paperless Infinity voting machine locked up and failed to release votes.
Texas
Bexar County, Texas. March, 2004. ES&S.
Accumulation computer was misprogrammed.
Bexar County, Texas. October, 2004. ES&S.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Dallas County, Texas. November 1998, March 2000, & May 2002. ES&S.
Paperless and optical scan voting systems lose thousands of votes.
Dallas County, Texas. April, 2002. ES&S.
Ballot programming error tallies 18 results incorrectly.
Harris County, Texas. November, 2003. Hart Intercivic.
eSlate paperless voting machines wouldn't start up.
Lubbock County, Texas. March, 2004. ES&S.
New software failed to count votes in one race.
Scurry County, Texas. November, 2002. ES&S.
Optical scan ballot programming error reported landslide victory for two wrong candidates.
Tarrant County, Texas. October, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
Electronic voting machines froze when voter access code was entered.
Tarrant County, Texas. October, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
Electronic voting machines "assist" early voters to undervote.
Travis County, Texas. October, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Wichita County, Texas. November, 2004. ES&S.
25% undervote rate in all races reveals a machine malfunction.
Virginia
Culpeper and Westmoreland Counties, Virginia. November, 2004. Unilect.
DRE Malfunctions caused long lines at the polls.
Fairfax County, Virginia. November, 2003. Advanced Voting Solutions.
AVS WINvote paperless voting machines failed.
Richmond, Virginia. February, 2004. Hart Intercivic.
eSlate paperless voting machine inexplicably shut down.
Washington
Washington. November, 2004.
New votes found in machine recount equals 35 times the new vote margin.
Grays Harbor County, Washington. November, 2004. ES&S.
Phantom votes are added by optical scanners.
King and Pierce Counties, Washington. September, 2004. Diebold, ES&S.
Poorly designed software revisions reject valid ballots.
Snohomish County, Washington. November, 2002. Sequoia.
Optical scanners failed to read 25% of the votes.
Snohomish County, Washington. September, 2004. Sequoia.
65 touch-screen crashed and smart cards jammed.
Snohomish County, Washington. September, 2004. Sequoia.
Circuit boards cause 20 paperless machines to malfunction.
Snohomish County, Washington. November, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.
Snohomish County, Washington. November, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens reverse voters' selections.
Snohomish County, Washington. December, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screen voting wastes time, money, and paper in a manual recount.
Snohomish County, Washington. October, 2004. Sequoia.
20 paperless machines malfunctioned. Cause unknown.
Yakima County, Washington. October, 2005 update. Hart Intercivic Ballot Now.
Vertical white line on scanned images caused tally errors.
Wisconsin
Columbia County, Wisconsin. September, 2004. Advanced Voting Solutions.
Old voting machines fail at inopportune time.
Medford, Wisconsin. March, 2005. ES&S.
ES&S programming error lost over 25% of the votes in the 2004 election.
Wyoming
Natrona County, Wyoming. August, 2004. ES&S.
Unity Election Management System tallied votes incorrectly.

 

No one votes unassisted on a computer;
everyone is "assisted" by anonymous programmers.
~ Mark Ortiz
former candidate for U.S. Representative
North Carolina, 8th District
 
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