WASHINGTON COUNTY (KFSM) - More than 800 ballots in Washington County will have to be counted by hand on Election Day. This comes after officials say electronic voting machines on Monday (Oct. 20) did not list each candidate's party affiliation.
The Washington County Election Commission held a special meeting on Tuesday (Oct. 21) to address concerns over the ballot problem, after voters and officials noticed Monday morning that electronic voting machines did not include party affiliations.
The problem was noticed after the first few voters cast their ballots, and officials temporarily fixed the situation by placing paper ballots, which included party affiliation, next to electronic voting machines for reference, said Jennifer Price, Washington County election coordinator.
Price said the glitch affected an estimated 824 voters. "We will have to actually manually enter in those votes on election night," she said.
There was a software glitch in 44 electronic voting machines throughout the county, and they were all fixed by the time polls opened Tuesday morning, she said.
"We have a programmer here in house, and she was able to go back into the system and re-burn everything and re-program it and get it fixed," Price said.
Price said the issue is an electronic coding mistake. Pre-tests conducted before early voting showed the machines recognized candidates’ correct party affiliations. Officials later found out the machines know the candidates’ parties, but the affiliation does not show on the screen voters see.
She said officials have tested the machines and expects them to fully function through the early voting period, which ends on Nov. 3.