Indiana voting glitch?

[Cleita]

I just heard that a voting glitch gave a Democrat a seat that a Republican thought he had because the votes had been scanned wrong. A recount revealed the error. Anybody else hear this?

[merh]

1. I just heard it on AAR.

The democratic candidate for county commissioner.

[LisaL]

2. Nope, you got it wrong.

Democratic candidate lost votes because of a glitch in Franklin county.
Apparently when people were voting for a straight democratic ticket, their votes counted as libertarians. But now they hand recounted the ballots and democratic candidate actually won after the glitch was corrected.

[hippiechick]

5. Here's the link ...

http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/194113-4600-102.html
Recount changes one Franklin Co. race


Associated Press
November 12, 2004


BROOKVILLE, Ind. -- A Democrat gained enough votes to bump a Republican from victory in a county commissioner's race after a recount prompted by a computer glitch in optical-scan voting. The glitch in the Fidlar Election Co. vote-scanning system had recorded straight-Democratic Party votes for Libertarians.

...

Fidlar confirmed the error on Wednesday, a day after Democrats raised questions about preliminary results that included a Libertarian candidate for Congress winning 7.7 percent of the vote in Franklin County. That was more than four times the percentage of votes he had won across the entire district.

No programming problems were found in Fidlar's optical scan Accuvote 2000 ES system, said Dana Pittman, an account manager for the Rock Island, Ill.-based company. However, Fidlar also is verifying programming of its optical scan equipment in Wisconsin and Michigan, which, like Indiana, have straight-party voting, Vern Paddock of Fidlar technical support told the Palladium-Item of Richmond.

The Franklin County problem does not call into question any results in Wisconsin or Michigan, Bill Barrett, national sales manager for Fidlar, told The Associated Press today. "That was an isolated incident in a single jurisdiction," Barrett said in a telephone interview from Detroit.

more ...

[LisaLynne]

6. So, more of the same ...

The supposed "glitches" keep benefiting the Republican candidate, or at least hurting the Dem. Hmm. I didn't know "glitches" were so partisan.

And crap -- they got us in IN, too! I want my Congressional Rep race recounted.

[merh]

8. Am I missing something? Looks like the glitch helped the dem?

:shrug: I am confused.

[LisaL]

9. Yes, you are confused. The glitch didn't help the dem.

Read the article provided.

[merh]

10. ????

A Democrat gained enough votes to bump a Republican from victory in a county commissioner's race after a recount prompted by a computer glitch in optical-scan voting

[kuozzman]

3. They are totally hiding the real reason/size of it, but at least they...

switched it-proves the glitches matter

http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/194113-4600-102.html

[LisaL]

7. Well, sure, glitches matter.

If only one can manually recount all those optical scan Florida counties where apparently so many Dixiecrats voted for Bush.
If you can vote straight democratic ticket and machine counts it for libertarian, who knows what had happened in Florida unless somebody recounts manually.

[dmac]

4. well, I bet they will fix "that" one

if only more voting irregularities had occurred in favor of the Dems, this issue would be getting much more attention.