Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 07/17/04)


Taos, New Mexico. November 2002.
Sequoia Optech optical scanner

A ballot programming error caused the Sequoia Optech optical scanner to assign votes to the wrong candidates. Just 25 votes separated the candidates in one race; another race had a 79-vote margin.

After noticing that the computer was counting votes under the wrong names, Taos County Clerk Jeannette Rael contacted the programmer of the optical machine and was told it was a programming error.

* Taos To Recount Absentee Ballots. Albuquerque Journal, 7 November 2002. [Confirmed by a VotersUnite! interview with Ms. Rael.]

See also: Sequoia in the News


Election security must not depend
on tight control over code
~ David Jefferson