A hearing in Clark County’s Circuit Court on Wednesday alleged that the county’s electronic voting machines were inoperable in Clarksville during the May 3 primary election.
As a result Clarksville Clerk-Treasurer Gary Hall is asking that Clarksville have a special election to determine the winner of May’s Democratic clerk-treasurer primary. “We’ve asked for a new election on that particular race,” said Jack Vissing, Hall’s attorney.
Hall lost the Clarksville clerk-treasurer primary race to Bob Leuthart by 26 votes. Leuthart received 880 votes compared to Hall’s 854 votes.
On May 16, Hall filed a petition requesting a recount, but also included a petition for election contest.
Vissing said the petition for election contest was filed — under Indiana Code 3-12-8-1 — because the electronic voting machines available for handicapped individuals did not work.
“The problem is they were all misprogrammed and they all failed on Election Day,” he said. “I think it is sufficient to grant a new election in this particular race.” According to the court filing there were two instances where a mistake occurred.
“[Hall] believes a mistake has occurred in the printing distribution and counting of the ballots making it impossible to determine who received the highest number of votes,” according to the filing. “[Hall] further believes that a mistake occurred in the programming of the electronic voting system … [it] malfunctioned throughout Clarksville making it impossible to determine the candidate who received the highest number of votes and making it impossible for individuals who wished to vote on the handicapped accessible Votroinix machine.”
Although Vissing said the electronic voting machines across the entire county malfunctioned, only the clerk-treasurer’s race in Clarksville will be considered for a new election because the filing deadline has passed for the rest of May’s primary candidates.
Full Article: Individual.com.