Pocono News Section

Voting Machine Glitch Casts Doubt on Ballots

Voting Machine Glitch Casts Doubt on Ballots - Friday, November 6, 2009 at 05:20AM EST

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Friday, Nov 6, 2009 @ 05:20am EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - Thousands of votes cast on Election Day in Lackawanna County are in question.
It all stems from the paper balloting system used to count the votes.

According to Lackawanna County Director of Elections Maryann Spellman Young, the voting machine glitch affects two contests in the city of Scranton -- the races for City Council and Tax Collector.

Tuesday's election night problem is blamed on election coding provided by Election Systems and Software. Lackawanna County has been using the Omaha, Nebraska company for its paper ballot counting since last year.

The Elections Director says the error was uncovered Thursday after unofficial votes were posted. It was determined the balloting system lacked specific computer coding to accurately tabulate straight party voting.

That glitch could have cost Scranton Council Candidate Janet Evans and Tax Collector Candidate Bill Courtright more than 2,000 votes each. Both are Democrats.

Courtright was unopposed so it's just a matter of tabulating his final victory total.

In Evans' case, it's a little different. She finished third, which was enough to reclaim her seat on council.

However, if she's credited with all possible votes in question, she'd end up top vote-getter among all council candidates.

Spellman Young issued a statement saying, "ES&S has provided the county with multiple options to re-tabulate these ballots in the affected precincts for these two races and obtain final results as soon as possible."

She added, "ES&S re-examined the full election coding to find that all other contests were coded accurately."

The official vote count gets underway Friday in Lackawanna County as well as throughout the rest of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.