The troubled April 3 special election in Tulsa’s House District 71 has led state and local officials to change procedures, software and training to makes sure all voters and candidates have confidence the process. On election night, Democrat Dan Arthrell was declared the unofficial winner by three votes. But a subsequent recount led to Republican Katie Henke being certified the winner by one vote. Only hours after the recount ended, Tulsa County election officials discovered two unsecured ballots for Arthrell still sitting in an election machine. They later said that evidence suggested that on two other occasions people were allowed to vote twice because of mistakes by precinct officials. Ultimately, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found it impossible to determine who won the election and invalidated the vote.
… Some of the changes planned by state and local election officials as a result of District 71 election problems:
• State voting machine have been adjusted to make them less susceptible to paper jams, Ziriax said. In two instances in the April election, machines apparently recorded votes but returned ballots to the voter because of jams, officials believe.
• State officials have changed the messages that appear on voting machines when duplicate ballots are submitted. In the two paper jam instances in the April election, voters tried to put their ballots back into the machine. The machines rejected the votes because they had already been recorded and displayed a numerical error code. The code has been replaced by a simple message telling precinct officials what to do, Ziriax said.
Full Article: State makes election changes | NewsOK.com.