Home
Site Map
Reports
Voting News
Info
Donate
Contact Us
About Us

VotersUnite.Org
is NOT!
associated with
votersunite.com


Election Problem Log - 2004 to 2009
Check out our other problem logs!
VotersUnite! began this problem log with the November 2004 election. It continued its compilation of problems reported in the media by adding news stories about subsequent elections, through 2009. See also: Failures by vendor and Failures by state.
Sort Order:               
Date Problem Type State
Vendor
Description
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction TX Hart InterCivic Harris County (Houston). Three of the seven E-Slate voting machines at Lockhart Elementary school weren't working properly since the polls opened at 7 a.m. Two were inactive, one was "misnumbering itself." Technicians arrived 2-1/2 hours later. Story Archive
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction UT Diebold Utah and Salt Lake Counties. Diebold touch screen machines weren't operating when the polls opened at several polling places in these counties and other areas. In some locations, all the machines were down. Voters waited up to 1-1/2 hours. Story Archive
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction UT Diebold Utah and Salt Lake Counties. Voter access card encoders for the Diebold touch screens weren't working in at least 32 of 118 polling locations, causing long lines, waits up to two hours, and voters turned away. Story Archive Story2 Archive2 Story3 Archive3
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction UT Diebold Salt Lake. Part of the text of Proposition 2 didn't show up on the Diebold touch screen. Story Archive
11/7/2006 Machine malfunction UT Diebold Utah County. Machines used to program Diebold voter access cards malfunctioned. After consulting with the maker of the touch-screen machines, Utah County has begun using one electronic machine at each polling location to program the voter access cards. That means every location will be short one machine - on a day when long lines are already expected. Story
11/5/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Sarasota County. Votes for Jennings, Democratic candidate for 13th Congressional District, fail to appear on the review screen of the ES&S iVotronic touch screens in several polling places. (A variation on the vote-switching seen in other States and other Florida Counties). Voters are able to return to the selection screen and correct the error, but there are questions about whether some votes for Jennings have been lost. Story Archive
11/5/2006 Machine malfunction KY Hart InterCivic Calloway County. Vote-switching on the review screen of the Hart InterCivic eSlate. Straight-ticket Democratic votes were switched to Republicans in all the contested races. Story
11/5/2006 Machine malfunction SC ESS Vote-switching on the ES&S iVotronics. Computer scientist's votes for one candidate were switched to another on the review screen. Story
11/4/2006 Machine malfunction OH Diebold Trumbull County and elsewhere in the state. Diebold touch screens fail to display one of the pages of text for Issue 2 when they are in "large-text mode". Story Archive
11/4/2006 Machine malfunction TX ESS Williamson County. ES&S iVotronic failed pre-election testing when straight party selections did not record a vote for Precinct 3 Commissioner. The same problem occurred at the beginning of early voting, but it was corrected and no votes were affected, Stacy said. Story Archive
11/3/2006 Machine malfunction NM McKinley County. Ballot printer at the early voting site printed one side of the ballot upside down, slowed down, then stopped. "According to Palochak, the county's Elections Bureau director, the problem lay with the electronic server in Santa Fe feeding the early voting centers across the state their voter data. The machines started slowing down around 2 p.m., he said, and were back to business as usual by 2:45." Story Archive
11/3/2006 Machine malfunction OH Diebold Cuyahoga County. Diebold scanner fails one of four pre-election tests. Michael Vu said, "It's not unusual in the testing that we find an anomaly. Our testing is going over and beyond the normal testing of the past." The officials will check the calibration. Some machines may be too sensitive and will be set aside and replaced. Story Archive
11/3/2006 Machine malfunction SC ESS Charleston County. ES&S iVotronics fail to allow voters to review their choices in contests where they can vote for more than one candidate -- in violation of HAVA. Story Archive
11/3/2006 Machine malfunction TX Diebold El Paso County. Vote-switching by Diebold touch screens. Review screens show the wrong choices - switching Democratic vote to Republican in at least one case. County attorney is investigating. Some voters had to correct the review screen three times, before it registered correctly. Story Archive Story2 Archive2

11/22/06 update. Problem logs requested by KTSM newschannel 9 show that, in the presence of an election judge, "a janitor in precinct 108 removed tamper seals and opened some voting machines." Story

11/2/2006 Machine malfunction AR ESS Washington County. ES&S iVotronic screen does not match paper printout. Clerk Karen Combs Pritchard said that, for the first two days of early voting in that county, the machines' paper printouts listed the wrong district number for a state representative candidate, although the number appeared correctly on the screen. Story Archive
11/2/2006 Machine malfunction FL Diebold Volusia County. The clock setting of the machines apparently goes back an hour every time they are turned on and off. So units at the four early-voting sites could be off by as much as six hours. Ann McFall, the Volusia County supervisor of elections, is concerned that the machines might stop accepting votes early on election day because of the incorrect clock setting. Malfunctions of the voting machines' clocks are believed to be confined to the five counties Polk, Putnam, Glades, Leon and Volusia that got the new, Class D machines from Diebold, which have not been certified by the state. Story Archive

Diebold spokesperson David Bear called the malfunction a human error and said it doesn't affect the integrity of the machines. Story2 Archive2

11/2/2006 Machine malfunction FL Sequoia Palm Beach County. Vote-switching from Democratic candidate to Republican, incorrect ballots on the Sequoia touch screens. "With four days of early voting left to go, and nearly 32,000 ballots cast, a handful of voters have complained they have had the wrong ballots show up on their touch screen. Or worse, their votes appear to go to the wrong candidates." Story Archive
11/2/2006 Machine malfunction IL Sequoia Chicago and Cook County. Vote-switching on the Sequoia touch screen. "Corrine Stoker pushed the button for one candidate, but her voting machine showed she voted for the opponent." Problems like Stoker's are "extremely rare," officials said, but can happen with electronic machines. Story Archive

Vote for Democratic gubernatorial candidate switches to Republican candidate. "Alignment keeps going out. Voters complain," a poll worker complaint filed Friday said. "They recalibrate. A couple voters later, they complain. They recalibrate. They complain, etc. For two days straight." Story Archive

11/2/2006 Machine malfunction IL Sequoia Chicago and Cook County. More Sequoia touch screen malfunctions. Trouble reports filed by voters and polling-place workers during early voting show glitches ranging from broken equipment to calibration issues with touch screens. "Screen goes black, beeps," reads one form. "Card will not lock into the unit," reads another. Story Archive
11/2/2006 Machine malfunction KS ESS Sedgwick County. ES&S iVotronic touch screen voting machines are broken down at all sites except two. Story
11/2/2006 Machine malfunction TN Hart InterCivic Sullivan County. The control device (Judges Booth Controller - JBC) for Hart InterCivic eSlate voting machines shut down after 10,000 ballots were cast in early voting. The JBC would hold no more ballots in its memory. Voters waited while the county replaced the machine. Officials don't expect this problem on election day since no precincts have 10,000 voters. Story Archive
11/2/2006 Machine malfunction TX Diebold Collin County - near Dallas. Vote-switching to Republicans. Diebold touch screens switch votes from Libertarian to Republican, and from Democrat to Republican.

"The machine I was using recorded a vote for a Republican three times instead of the Libertarian I chose in three cases for individuals.listed in succession on the screen. I was so shocked I spoke out-loud that the machine was not recording my votes, but giving my votes to a candidate I did not choose. I had to make three corrections in successive order to correct these three errors. I was even more shocked when the summary appeared. I saw that Perry, Dewhurst and Combs were being credited with votes I DID NOT CAST FOR ANY OF THEM! I am positive who I chose for those offices and Chris Bell was being denied the vote I cast. These three errors in the summary were corrected by me before the ballot was submitted and my card withdrawn. I will forever believe that the machine I was using was rigged to switch votes to Republicans." Story Archive

11/1/2006 Machine malfunction AR ESS Pulaski County. Vote-switching from Republican to Democrat SoS candidate on ES&S iVotronic. “I had a voter from Jacksonville call me to say that he and his wife tried to vote for me (on different machines) four different times but each time they selected my name, my opponent’s name popped up on the touch screen,” says Jim Lagrone, Republican candidate for Arkansas Secretary of State. “On the fifth try, it finally worked for both of them." Story
10/31/2006 Machine malfunction AR ESS Garland County. Ballot programming error on the ES&S Personal Electronic Ballot (PEB) which brings up a voter's ballot on the iVotronic. "When we got to the point of trying to do our three amendments, everything just scrambled," said Garland County Election Commissioner Charles Tapp. A similar problem occurred in Sebastian County. Both these counties have chosen to do their own ballot programming. A similar problem also occurred in Benton County, which has ES&S do the ballot programming. Story Archive
10/30/2006 Machine malfunction IN MicroVote Monroe County, using the MicroVote touch screen. "In Monroe County, a glitch in how the ballots are read could confuse certain straight-party voters, officials said. So poll workers plan to advise those voters on exactly what their vote will mean and how to cast it." Story Archive
10/28/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. Vote-switching to Republicans by the ES&S iVotronics. "Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist." Story Archive
10/28/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Miami-Dade County. Vote-switching to Republicans by ES&S iVotronics. "Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up. Raponi, 53, persevered until the machine worked. Then he alerted a poll worker." Story Archive
10/28/2006 Machine malfunction TX ESS Jefferson County. Vote-switching from Democrat to Republican on the ES&S iVotronic screen. "Friday night, KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket. ... Saturday, KFDM spoke to another voter who says it's not just happening with straight ticket voting, he says it's happening on individual races as well, Jerry Stopher told us when he voted for a Democrat, the Republican's name was highlighted." Story Archive
10/27/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County - Vote-switching to Republicans by ES&S iVotronic. "After casting her votes, Marek, a Democrat, was surprised to see name of Charlie Crist -- the Republican candidate for governor -- on the review screen. ... She said poll workers told her the machine had been problematic before, but that they had reprogrammed it, a process they repeated after speaking to her." Story Archive
10/26/2006 Machine malfunction AR ESS Washington County. Ballot programming error. The voter-verifiable paper record printed the wrong district for the voter's choice. The candidate himself noticed that his paper record said he was in District 87, rather than the correct District 92. ES&S is reprogramming the ballots so the record will print the correct District. Election Coordinator Nancy Varvil said, "This never affected the tallying of the votes. The fix just puts the correct district on the audit trail.” Story Archive
10/26/2006 Machine malfunction MD Diebold It is now revealed that Diebold replaced 4,700 system boards in Maryland's touch screen machines in 2005 to eliminate the "screen freezes" that have occurred since the machines were purchased in 2002. "The screen freezes do not cause votes to be lost, officials said." Both Diebold and Linda Lamone kept this information from the state board of elections. Story Archive
10/26/2006 Machine malfunction TX Hart InterCivic Travis County (Austin). Hart InterCivic eSlate chops off the last part of candidate names on the review screen. This is the same problem that occurred on the machines in Virginia. Officials have complained to the manufacturer for two years, yet they insist the votes are counted correctly.
"But it does require additional voter diligence in an already complicated special election. For instance, if voters want to double-check that they've picked the Republican or Democrat of their choice, it won't be obvious from the summary screen. A voter would have to know that "William E. 'Bill' " is Democrat Bill Moody, a Supreme Court Place 2 candidate. The summary screen doesn't list party affiliation." Story Archive
10/25/2006 Machine malfunction FL ESS Broward County. Some ES&S iVotronic touch screen machines "stopped working briefly and had to be restarted because of high-volume use, Cooney said. No votes were lost." Mary Cooney is the spokeswoman for the Supervisor of Elections.
''When some voters went to touch a choice for a precinct or candidate we would have to stop the voter, start again and then it would be fine,'' Cooney said. ``It hasn't slowed anyone down.'' Story Archive
10/25/2006 Machine malfunction FL Sarasota County. Early voting hit an afternoon slowdown Tuesday as problems with a county computer system prevented elections workers from looking up voters' information. Elections workers were unable to get into a database containing voters' registration numbers, voting histories, and information about whether a voter received an absentee ballot. Story Archive
10/24/2006 Machine malfunction VA Hart InterCivic Alexandria, Falls Church, and Charlottesville. The review page on the Hart InterCivic eSlate (electronic voting machine) cuts off the last part of the candidates' names, as well as their party affiliation. For example, James H. "Jim" Webb appears as James H. "Jim", while James T. "Jim" Hurysz appears as James T."Jim". Officials attribute this to a larger font size. These jurisdictions have had this problem since purchasing the machines in 2002.
Editor's note: The eSlate does not allow voters to adjust the font size on the screen (as required by 2002 federal standards), so they are unable to read the last names of many candidates on the review screen where they confirm the accuracy of their votes. Story Archive Falls Church officials say they complained about the problem a year ago and Hart InterCivic did nothing to fix it. Story Archive
10/21/2006 Machine malfunction IN VTI Randolph County. Voting Technologies Internation (VTI) e-voting machines fail to tabulate correctly -- first in the primary, then in testing for the general election. Story Archive
10/18/2006 Machine malfunction TN Diebold Shelby County. Two women were given the wrong ballot for the Diebold touch screen. For one, the Germantown races -- not her town -- appeared first. For the other, those races appeared last. When she looked for a poll worker to inform about the problem, the machine timed out, cancelled her ballot, blanked the screen, and ejected her voter card. With no proof that her ballot had been cancelled, she was not allowed to vote a regular ballot, but only given a provisional ballot. Story Archive
8/9/2006 Machine malfunction CO Sequoia Denver County. Paper printout was wrong on the Sequoia Edge. Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff was the second person to try to vote on a new machine at Washington Park, but his vote for himself did not print properly. Picture Story Archive
6/13/2006 Machine malfunction AR ESS Marion County. A Marion County Election commissioner said officials had a problem with some iVotronic electronic voting machines that did not recognize when 7:30 p.m., the time to close the polls, arrived. The machines had to be forced to shut down Story Archive
5/23/2006 Machine malfunction AR ESS Phillips County. ES&S printed barcodes incorrectly on paper ballots. Choices for the county are to have ES&S reprogram the Personal Electronic Ballot (PEB cartridge) to read the existing bar codes, or have them reprint the ballots. ES&S did not send the chips that could have read the ballots. Story Archive
Records: 401-440 of 616
<< Prev      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16      Next >>
 
Favorites

Election Problem Log image
2004 to 2009



Previous
Features


Accessibility Issues
Accessibility Issues


Cost Comparisons
Cost Comparisons


Flyers & Handouts
Handouts


VotersUnite News Exclusives


Search by

Copyright © 2004-2010 VotersUnite!