Misprogramming causes the Unity software to balk at accumulating votes from the optical scan machines used to count absentee ballots.

... "They have big problems," said Nick Peña, a poll watcher for District 28 U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. "They look very worried.

"They have a bunch of technicians in the tabulation room, and they are pulling out wires and reattaching them, and the computer screens are all frozen. You can tell that something is happening," Peña said.

... Borofsky said the delay occurred after it was discovered the tabulation computers hadn't been properly programmed with updated data in order to count the mail-in paper ballots.

The computer system then was taken off line and updated with the information needed to process the 3,000 paper ballots, which were tabulated using high-speed scanners.