Davison County has something no other county in South Dakota has: a new up-to-date voting machine that is supposed to count ballots easier and quicker. But the new device didn’t quite do its job last night. It failed to read around 700 ballots, creating some headaches for the County Auditor. The new voter machine in Davison County is supposed to be a big improvement over the equipment it replaced, but during Tuesday night’s election it worked almost too well. “The ballot marks on the back bled through to the front. You can’t see it with the naked eye, only the machine read it,” said Kiepke.
Some stamps like this were too heavy on the back of the ballot and bled through to the front. The machine interpreted it as a mistake and didn’t read the ballot. What’s ironic is the new counting system was purchased because of hiccups with the old machine.
“In 2012 the machine didn’t clear correctly. It counted one precinct twice,” said Kiepke.
To try to avoid another problem, County Auditor Susan Kiepke conducted around 10 tests with the new machine weeks before the election.
Full Article: KDLT.com South Dakota News – Davison Co. Voting Machine Fails To Read 700 Ballots.