04 October 2008

Big Presidential Vote Count Error Found and Fixed in New Mexico

Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet - October 4, 2008

A test in Santa Fe County finds and fixes an error that could have cost Democrats thousands of votes.

An electronic voting machine test in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, on Friday revealed a programming error that, had it not been caught and corrected before the start of early voting next week, would not have counted hundreds -- or possibly thousands -- of votes for president and U.S. Senate in this Democratic stronghold.

The software error concerned straight party voting, where voters fill in one oval on their paper ballot that indicates they want to vote for all the candidates from a political party. The test revealed that the precinct optical-scanner computers, which read hand-marked paper ballots and compile the precinct vote totals, were not counting "straight party" votes for president and U.S. Senate.

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