Georgia's Flawed Software Caused Ballot Tabulation Errors

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14. The paper ballots with scanners work very well **IF** the scanner is programmed correctly

Here we use that system. For early voting, they print the appropriate ballot, put it in a folder and give it to you. You take it into a booth, mark it and feed it into the scanner. If the scanner detects any problem with the ballot, it spits it out and the voter has the chance to correct it. You can get a new ballot if that happens and mark it again. If you insist that the ballot is the way you want it, it is then counted.

Back in 2000, Leon County had about 175 ballots that were not acceptable to the scanners, and a portion of those were marked in a way that made the voter's intent clear so they were counted. Gadsden County to the west had the same system but did not program the scanners to kick out unscannable ballots. They had a much higher failed ballot result. Our Supervisor of Elections helped them reprogram their scanners and for the recount they rescanned the ballots. The ones that were kicked out were examined and the ones where the voter's intent was obvious were counted. The recount went smoothly and the following elections in Gadsden were much better run.