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. “It did not affect any of the outcomes of local races at all,” said Donna Zappala, who handles information technology issues for the Davidson County Board of Elections. The county was able to recover the votes from a backup system, she said.
The machine in question was one stationed in the county board of elections’ office for early voting. The faulty media cards are being saved for inspection by state elections officials.
In Wilson County, Elections Director Rena Morris said elections officials failed to upload the votes cast on three machines in two different precincts properly. Again, the additional votes – 221 for Beasley and 129 for Robinson – did not change the overall outcome of either the court race or any local election, Morris said.
“It was human error,” Morris said of the missing votes.
Full Article: Voting machine problems do not change election outcome :: WRAL.com.