Coding error in electronic voting machines in Luzerne County caused confusion
LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) — Today's election wasn't problem-free at the polls.
A coding error in electronic voting machines in Luzerne County caused confusion amongst voters.
"I'm a registered Republican and it came up as a Democrat, multiple times they tried to correct it to get it to change and it didn't, but the Republican ballot was coming up, but it just stated it was a Democratic ballot," Joseph Leonard, Candidate: Dallas School Director explained.
As voters came out to the polls this morning, they noticed something odd.
"The card said Democratic and it's just, it was terrible because it should say Republican on it, but it didn't so somebody dropped the ball on this and I blame the Election Board," Lynn Bartz, Republican District Chair, 117th District.
"This error occurred during vendor programming of the device and appears on Republican ballots county wide. The ballot correctly show Republican candidates however the header of the ballot says Democrat," Bob Morgan, Director of Elections at Luzerne County.
This coding error by Dominion Voting caused confusion and frustration for voters.
"Very confusing because you look and you see Democratic and you think it's the Democrat ballot for a Republican and especially for some of the elderly they don't understand," Bartz explained.
The Luzerne County Elections Bureau tells us this error will not affect the voting count.
"The function of the device has been thoroughly reviewed and tested and the error appears on the screen only the ballot prints correctly with the Republican header and contains only Republican primary race results," Morgan said.
"I was able to verify that it was the Republican ballot. It printed it out for me so I was able to look at all the selections I had made to verify them, but again given what's gone on I would have thought it would have been something they would have checked out ahead of time and not let it get to this point," Leonard said.
Republican voters who were uncomfortable with the header being off, had the choice to vote by paper using a provisional or emergency ballot.
"Remember what you are seeing on the tablet, the screen where you view your ballot is exactly that it is a viewer. It is not until you actually make your choices and the ballot prints out below the machine and then you go to the other machine and put that paper in that your ballot is actually cast," Morgan said.
If you are a Republican voter who may have left the polls this morning due to this issue, the Luzerne County Republicans and say that you can still go back to your voting location and vote on one of the machines or by emergency or provisional ballots before the polls close at 8 PM.
The Luzerne County Elections Bureau tells us that like planned, the official election results will be released on Friday.
