Virginia election officials were gathering information Wednesday about a glitch that affected 32 voting machines in the southeastern part of the state, a Department of Elections spokeswoman said. Rose Mansfield said that once all the information is received, the head of the department will conduct a complete review and will likely present a report on Tuesday’s troubles to the State Board of Elections. “Our voting technology specialists are working on it,” Mansfield said, adding that the priority is to get the right answers about what went wrong on Election Day. The faulty machines are a fraction of the 820 touchscreen devices that were used in the affected precincts, most of them in Virginia Beach. They were taken out of service after voters complained that they tried to vote for one candidate, but the machine attempted to record the vote for another. Mansfield said all the machines were calibrated and tested before the election.
U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, R-2nd, unsuccessfully sought a court order to force Virginia Beach to switch to paper ballots after receiving complaints from some voters who reported pressing the box next to his name only to see an “X’’ pop up next to his Democratic opponent’s name. Rigell won by a large margin but remains concerned, a spokeswoman said.
“Yesterday’s voting irregularities in Virginia Beach were deeply troubling,” Rigell communications director Kim Mosser Knapp said in an email. “Every vote must count – and be counted correctly – regardless of the candidates running or who is benefiting from the malfunctions.”
Full Article: Va. election officials look into machine glitches – The Washington Post.