Errors found in voting machines

Several people who selected a candidate for Salina City Commission Tuesday may have found another candidate check-marked instead.

By GARY DEMUTH

Salina Journal

Several people who selected a candidate for Salina City Commission on Tuesday might have found that the voting machine they were using instead put a checkmark by another candidate.

Voting machine errors were reported at Trinity Lutheran Church, Ninth and Crawford streets; Christ the King Lutheran Church, 111 W. Magnolia; and at a church in Kipp, according to Saline County Clerk Don Merriman.

The problem was this: When a voter pressed a certain candidate's bar on the voting machine's screen, the candidate above the selected candidate instead received the checkmark.

The error, Merriman said, most likely was caused by a calibration problem in the machine caused during transit to the polling places.

"When they were sent out, they probably got jostled and got out of calibration," he said. "They didn't recognize the touch. We had to go in and recalibrate them to make sure (the machines) understand what to record when you touch it."

While there is a possibility that a voter might not have noticed the error and accidently voted for the wrong candidate, Merriman said the chances are slim.

"There's a review section at the end so you can see who you voted for," he said. "You can also look on the audit log on the left side (of the voting machine) to verify your vote. If an error was made, you can redo it to get it where you want.

"Luckily, this doesn't happen very often."

nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.

Join the Discussion:

Salina.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here. Read our full online terms of service policy.

Frank says....
Better late than never, I suppose, but like other readers I find it extremely hard to believe that transporting multiple machines to different polling places would result in the same error in those places. Ron Thornburg pushed to get unreliable machines installed all over the state, using HAVA money to fatten a Republican corporation. Once rural counties committed to using those machines, it became unaffordable to change them.
4/22/2009

---

Too often says....
My laptop was shipped from Taiwan without the touch screen getting knocked out of calibration. Just sayin...
4/11/2009

---

JEP says....
There's one very big question that was either never asked or never answered in this article that has EVERYTHING to do with potential motive for deception. And just what IS that simple question, glaringly absent from this article? WHICH WAY DO THE VOTES FLIP? If they flip indiscriminately, no problem, it's just a big, stupid monumental mistake that most of us would get fired for letting it happen in the first place. However, if my tinfoil deerstalker is tingling properly, I can ony wonder just how those votes are flipping. If they consistently flip in favor of one party, there's no more solid proof of intentional subterfuge, and on a systemic scale. Just which way were those votes flipping? Does anyone know? And if they do, why doesn't the writer ask that simple question. If the answer is that they all flip for one party's benefit, there's some serious splainin' to do. They seem determined to convince us that it's the acid in the ink, but if that only flips votes for one party, that is a pretty selective inkblot. Simple logic dictates that, if the votes all flip in favor of one party, only a deliberate program "error" might accomplish that.
4/11/2009

---

It's True! says....
Syko is right. It's amazing that politicos can never get it right while the rest of the world can. Makes me suspect a conspiracy!
4/10/2009

---

Beam Me up Scotty says....
On TV Merriman indicated the problem was due to the machines being transported and jostled around. Assuming that is true, which it probably isn't, maybe the logical thing would be to calibrate them on site after transportation. Touchscreen calibrations that i have done (on other electronics) are very simple and take about 30 seconds.
4/10/2009

---

says....
It sure would have been nice to learn of this before we voted, so we could have double checked before we hit the vote button. I never gave it a thought that I voted for the wrong person. Oh well, too late now.
4/10/2009

---

says....
Seems to be happening across the country more than rarely. This should NEVER happen. This is also why I will never ever vote on these machines.
4/9/2009

---

The syko one says....
It amazes me how much we rely on touch screens today, but we can't seem to use them for elections. Take your debit or credit card into any retailer and chances are you will use a touch screen. Thousands upon thousands of transactions happen every day around all parts of the country using touch screens. But everytime we have an election, they screw up.
4/9/2009

---

Now You Tell Us says....
NOW I know how Obama won! It was all due to voting machine errors.
4/8/2009

---

New Technology....!!! says....
I've been voting for 31 years and never had a problem. This happened to me around 4pm at Meadowlark School. Iam suprised it was not reported also, election officials were right there. Not only one candidate but 2. Fortunatly if you are checking to make sure your vote is accurate, opportunity to correct the error was easy enough. This "error" however definitly needs to be addressed for future elections.
4/8/2009

---

VotersUnite.Org says....
The comment from Don Merriman that "chances were slim" that the vote flipping was not noticed by the voters is utter nonsense. A study done by Rice University in 2007 proved that a large majority of the voters do not even look at the review screen let alone the paper audit trail on the left side of the machine. If it had been noticed as Merriman states then why weren't those machines taken out of service immediately? Once nice thing about paper ballots is that they don't go out of calibration.
4/8/2009

---

Post a comment
Your best chance of getting your comment posted:

• No profanity
• Be civil
• Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Comment:

Poster:

Enter text seen above:

Read our full use policy.