Voting machine problems noted during primary

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 29, 2005

EVERETT – September’s primary ran smoothly but not flawlessly for election officials.

Unlike last fall, there are no recounts and no one discovered trays of uncounted ballots.

Some voters did experience frustration due to temporary malfunctions in their voting machines.

In Lynnwood, when Becky Janecke pushed the stylus on the bubble next to the name of mayoral candidate Mike McKinnon, the device registered Don Gough as her selection. She tried five more times without success before summoning the polling place supervisor.

“At that point, I’d have felt better if she had moved me to another machine or closed it down,” she said. “She did not close that machine down, and that disturbed me.”

It took five more attempts before the machine worked and she was able to select McKinnon.

“It was very uncomfortable,” she said, noting that she will switch to a mail ballot for the general election.

“Every time I had to clear it and void it, I wondered if my vote actually counted, and if the other times counted too,” she said. She said she wondered if it happened to other people and they did not notice.

In Lake Stevens, Garland Connor could not select the Democratic Party because there was no bubble to tap. Aided by a poll worker, he also needed several tries to make it work.

In an e-mail to the state Democratic Party leadership, he said he was mad that the polling place supervisor did not shut down the machine.

“I am at a loss at what to do. My secret ballot was compromised, and I have no recourse,” he wrote in asking the party to push to shut down poll sites in Lake Stevens.

County Auditor Bob Terwilliger said such calibration problems were not unexpected. The machines are tested and calibrated before being shipped to the polling places, but jostling during the ride can knock some off kilter.

Poll workers are instructed to work to get them online or notify an election troubleshooter. Machines that don’t recalibrate are removed from use.

“We don’t let voters vote on machines that are not accurately registering their votes,” Terwilliger said.

For those concerned that the vote tally increased with each failed attempt, he said the number of votes cast is compared with the number of voters signed in at a polling place to ensure that there are not more votes than voters.

Every machine will be tested and recalibrated again before the Nov. 8 election.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.