Recent Problems with Programming Voting Equipment

These are three recent problems that occurred in or near Wisconsin.  Votetrust USA has a list of some problems around the country.  How many other problems have occurred because we do not have adequate audits and recounts?

Milwaukee, September 2006.  They admitted that they programmed the voting machines wrong resulting in 35,000 phantom voters.  They insisted that it did not affect the tally for the candidates, but offered no proof.  To this day, the ballots have not been manually inspected to see if the machines determined the correct tally for candidates.  See the  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Medford Wisconsin, November 2004.  The machines did not count 27% of the ballots, and no one noticed it.  It was discovered 4 months later by a private company.  The State Elections Board staff found out about it when called by a reporter.  See the SEB report.

Pottawattamie County, Iowa, June 2006.  There was a major error by the same vendor used by many places in Wisconsin.  There were nine races on the ballot.  On election night, county election workers noticed odd results in the race for County Recorder. A popular incumbent of 23 years was losing to a 19-year-old college student.  The election administrator suspected something amiss, and ordered a manual check of the paper ballots.  It turned out that the machines had called all nine races wrong.

Web page by Paul Malischke       malischke@yahoo.com       Last updated February 03, 2008