Voting Machines Malfunction: 5,000 Votes Not Counted In Kansas County

An anonymous reader writes A malfunction in electronic voting machines in Saline County, Kansas, left over 5,000 votes uncounted. That's roughly one-third of the votes cast. Counting those 5,207 votes didn't change any outcomes in this case however. “That’s a huge difference,” county Chairman Randy Duncan said when notified by the Journal of the error. “That’s scary. That makes me wonder about voting machines. Should we go back to paper ballots?”

Comments

Re:"Should we go back to paper ballots?"

[reve_etrange]

I've worked as an "elections inspector" (actually the head worker at one polling place) in California a few times, and this is pretty much the system used by most counties here.

There are a few ways for voters to mess up the scanner, but in general if there are voting errors the ballot will be rejected and a new ballot card will be issued. It's possible for them to jam the machine, and we need special permission or a higher-level election worker to open it up to clear. There are a series of numbered, zip-tie-like seals which are applied in various places to ensure tampering is detected. In addition to the ballots, there are detailed logs on the memory cartridge, which are printed out in duplicate as "receipts" from the machine itself.

All in all, I think it's a fairly low-tech, low-risk system.