Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 09/27/04)


Craighead County, Arkansas. May, 2004. ES&S.
Ballot programming error assigned all votes to one candidate.

The chip programmed by ES&S for the county's optical scanner gave one candidate all the votes for constable. A manual recount revealed the error.*

A recount was made in the District 13 constable race because returns from Precinct 20 showed one candidate received all 158 votes cast in the precinct, and the opposing candidate doubted that.

The incident was traced back to a computer chip coding error, and the result of the recount was that both candidates had received votes in the precinct.

* Commission OKs results of elections. Jonesboro Sun, May 28, 2004. By LeAnn Askins.

See: ES&S in the News


There's really no way
that I could prove to a voter,
post tally, that their vote
exactly counted the way that they voted it.
~ James M. Ries Jr.
President of Microvote