Election Day 2023: Officials Say Voting Machine Glitch Is Changing Some Votes
As Americans in several states went to the polls on Tuesday, a county in eastern Pennsylvania reported one of the most troubling issues any voter could worry about.
A vote cast on whether to keep a sitting judge on the state’s Superior Court would be recorded for another judge on the ballot, according to the Allentown Morning Call.
County officials decided to use provisional ballots briefly until a judge decided the flipped votes could be taken into account in the postelection canvassing process, another news outlet reported.
Officials in Northampton County, north of Philadelphia, posted a Facebook message about the problem.
The problem affected judicial retention races on the court, which is one step below the state Supreme Court.
On the ballot are Judges Jack Panella, a Democrat, and Victor P. Stabile, a Republican.
In its Facebook post, Northampton County said, “It appears that when a voter selects a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ for one of the candidates for retention to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the selection is recorded on the paper ballot and on the machine for the other candidate.”
The post stressed that the judicial retention race was the only one where the issue arose. Also, the problem appeared only if a voter wished to retain one of the judges but not the other.
“The issue is limited to the retention of Superior Court judges and is only an issue when recording the votes for when a voter selected a ‘Yes’ for one candidate and a ‘No’ for another,” the Facebook post said.
Poll workers were instructed by text message to notify voters about the problem, according to the post.
According to LehighValleyNews.com, machines were taken offline and voters received provisional ballots for about an hour. However, once Northampton County determined that the problem affected only one race and that it was affecting that race on machines throughout the county, poll workers were notified by text to restart the machines and notify voters of the problem.
“The uniformity also means it can be corrected: When the votes are officially canvassed over the next several days, canvassers can assign votes for retention recorded on the voting machines, essentially reversing the flipped votes to ‘reflect the intent of the voter,’” according to a court filing reported by the website.
According to LehighValleyNews.com, the chairman of the Northampton County Republican Committee, Glenn Geissinger, said the party would appeal that decision.
The county’s Facebook page limited the ability of users to comment on its post.
But at a time when election integrity is in the national spotlight, the news got attention on social media from across the country.
In Arizona, Abe Hamadeh, a Republican former attorney general candidate and current congressional contender, posted a mocking note to the social media platform X:
Safest most secure election ever!
“Officials said that when a voter would select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on their ballot for one of the candidates up for retention to the PA Superior Court, the vote was recorded on the paper ballot and on the machine for the other” https://t.co/7IeYYMQOBQ
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) November 7, 2023
Northampton County’s chief executive, Lamont McClure said he was “livid” at the problems at the polls, LehighValleyNews.com reported.
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