Problems force Flagler to switch to old voting machines (FL)
Flagler News Journal Online. October 22, 2008. By JAMES MILLER,Staff Writer

Flagler County elections officials switched voting machines for early voting Tuesday to eliminate a problem that had kept them from scanning 96 ballots during early voting hours Monday.

The 96 ballots were successfully scanned after the close of voting Monday, Supervisor of Elections Peggy Rae Border said.

But on Tuesday, elections officials replaced the three newer-model ballot scanners they had used at the county's three voting sites Monday with older scanners to avoid a repeat.

Border said the county's vendor thinks slightly shorter ballots 1/32 of an inch in some cases may have caused the problem. She said she suspected the new machines were more sensitive to the variation in ballot length.

The older scanners were going to be used on Election Day anyway, Border said. When the county bought the new ones used for the first time in August it could only afford three of them. She said there were no problems with ballot scanning Tuesday.

"Everything went smoothly," Border said.