brennan center for justice

May 2008April 2008November2006May 2006July 2005DanaherControlsShouptronic1242DanaherControlsShouptronic1242ES&S:iVotronicES&S:Optical Scan(modelunknown)Danaher:1242PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaIn Northumberland County, the Daily Item reported,“poll workers discovered that voters who cast astraight-party ticket could not see a summary of thecandidates they voted for. Mike Anderson, deputydirector of elections, said many of the county’s 94precincts were notified immediately and told toinform voters not to cast straight-party tickets.” Thisapparently did not happen, and later that evening, ajudge ordered the machines impounded. 463Bucks County, PAThe Bucks County Courier Times reported that votingmachines in five municipalities malfunctioned. Thecause of the problems was unknown. Countyspokeswoman Stacey Hajdak said, “I can't tell youthe exact problems of each machine until a technicianexamines it.” 464Philadelphia County, PAAccording to local television station KDKA, at onepolling location, an electronic voting machine“wouldn’t work” and voters were forced to use paperballots. A poll worker speculated that the problemswere caused by a morning power outage in theprecinct: “‘We did have a problem with theelectricity for a minute. It must have gone off and on– and maybe that triggered what the problem endedup being.’” 465Allegheny County, PAThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that twentyvoting machines were removed from polling stationsacross Allegheny County due to technical glitches.The faulty machines failed to “zero out,” or reset thevote tally at zero before the voting started. 466Luzerne County, PAAccording to the Times Leader, unofficial talliesdiffered by nearly 6,000 votes from official ballotcounts. Some candidates’ vote totals were hundredsof votes short of the initial count. Officials attributedthe tabulation errors to the voting machine vender,who failed to reset a counter on a ballot scanner. 467Berks County, PAThe Reading Eagle reported that 111 votes were lostduring the primaries for the county election board.The error occurred when the cartridges used toBrennan Center for Justice | 85