Supreme Court Associate Justice Cheri Beasley won her re-election campaign against Forsyth County lawyer Mike Robinson despite vote tabulation errors discovered in several counties throughout the state. Beasley won by more than 5,000 votes in a race where more than 2.4 million votes were cast. Recount results, which the State Board of Elections certified during a teleconference meeting Tuesday, showed Robinson picked up a net of 17 votes across the state. Robinson has told State Board of Elections officials that he has conceded and will not seek a further recount. While the overall vote swing was not enough to make a meaningful dent in the election total, changes in Davidson, Lenoir and Wilson counties, all of which use touch-screen voting equipment, involved eye-catching totals of several hundred votes each. In Davidson County, Beasley picked up 520 votes and Robinson gained 884 votes since the time county elections officials originally canvassed votes. The problem, elections officials there say, was a faulty media card used to store and transfer votes from a touch-screen machine.
… Of North Carolina’s 100 counties, 60 use the touch-screen systems like the ones used in Davidson, Lenoir and Wilson counties. Although the tabulation problems reported during the recount were unusual and involved human error in at least two of three cases, this is not the first time this election cycle there have been problems with the system.
During early voting and on Election Day itself, voters in several counties that use touch-screen machines reported problems voting. In particular, they said when they touched their choice, the machine highlighted another name. These types of issues have popped up with touch-screen machines over the past decade and are typically chalked up to calibration errors.
Full Article: Voting machine problems do not change election outcome :: WRAL.com.