brennan center for justice

February2008February2008October 2006April 2003November2008ES&SModel 100SequoiaOptech InsightSequoiaAVC Edge II PlES&SM100ES&SiVotronicIllinoisIllinoisIllinoisIllinoisIndianaelection was a primary election. To solve theproblem, some election officials placed tape on thescreen over where the word flashed. 383Lake County, ILThe Chicago Daily Herald reported that the opticalscan vote-tabulation machine was unable to transmitelectronically the voting results. Thus, electionofficials were forced to drive the machines to thenearest transfer station for tabulation. Electionofficials launched an investigation to determine thecause of the problem. 384Cook County, ILAccording to the Daily Northwestern, votes weremiscounted at one precinct in Cook County during alocal race. The results “were missing 247 of the 540ballots.” 385Chicago and Cook County, ILAccording to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago andCook County officials said they had received a fewcomplaints from early voters about pressing oncecandidate name on the touch screen and having themachine register another. This type of event canoccur if the machine is not adequately calibrated. 386Lake County, ILThe Chicago Tribune reported that because of aprogramming error that failed to account for theoption of “no candidate” on the ballot, electionresults were placed next to the names of the wrongcandidates in four different races. The problem wascorrected by 10pm on the evening of Election Day. 387Wayne County, INOfficials in Wayne County ran into problems,according to the Palladium-Item, when officials triedto get a final tally of the vote. “When local officialstried to tally the vote they received a ‘system error’message. They stopped the count, secured the votesand then had to wait for an answer to the problemfrom company officials at Election Systems &Software, which provided the computer system forthe local election.” The call to ESS alone took overan hour but issue was resolved on the call. It wasunclear why the “system error’ message appeared. 388November ES&S Indiana Madison County, INBrennan Center for Justice | 67