On election night 2011 during the evening and into the next morning, Franklin County pollworkers contacted the Free Press telling the paper that they were unable to make the electronic voting machines print out precinct-level results as required by law. This prevented pollworkers from posting election totals at the polling sites at the end of the night.
One pollworker of 35 years reported that “programming errors” had prevented “many precincts” in Franklin County from being able to print their totals for display on the windows of the voting locations.”
A concerned citizen also wrote that he was aware of “an unknown number of Franklin County precincts which could not print out their precinct totals last night, due to a ‘glitch.’ These precincts included mine, where the results were not posted inside the window of the shelter house, as has been customary every preceding election I’ve lived here.”
The Free Press has obtained a Veteran’s Day email to polling officials, including precinct judges in Franklin County. In the email, the Franklin County Board of Elections admits to programming software problems that made it impossible to print out precinct result tallies at the end of election night.
The email explained that “In error the programmers for this election inadvertently specified two (2) ‘Zero Tapes’ and zero (0) ‘Results Tapes.'”
The Franklin County Board of Elections appears to be in violation of the Ohio Secretary of State’s Directive 2008-87: “Posting Summary Statements of Precinct Elections Results at Polling Locations.” Poll summary print-outs are required by this directive, which has never been rescinded. The directive puts election officials in compliance with Ohio’s Revised Code 3505.30.
Full Article: The Free Press — Independent News Media from Columbus, Ohio.