Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour

Union County, Florida. September, 2002.
ES&S Model 100 optical scanner.

A ballot programming error caused the machines to read 2,642 Democratic and Republican votes as entirely Republican. The ballot program in the memory packs read the ballots incorrectly. The vendor, ES&S, accepted responsibility for the programming error and paid for a hand recount.*

* Sometimes the old ways are best. The Bradenton Herald, 17 September 2002. (Referenced in Black Box Voting by Bev Harris.) Machine type confirmed in a follow-up phone call from VotersUnite! on June 2, 2004 to Barbara Montpetit, Union County Supervisor of Elections

See: ES&S in the News and Ballot Programming Introduction

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