brennan center for justice

May 2005November2008October 2008January 2008ES&S:M550ES&SiVotronicES&SiVotronicES&SiVotronicPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaSouth CarolinaSouth Carolinarecord votes were accidentally programmed astraining cartridges. Election results showed that threeraces were determined by less than 111 votes. 468Cumberland County, PAA ballot programming error for straight-line ticketvotes gave the office of magisterial district judge tothe wrong candidate, according to the Sentinel.Straight-ticket Democratic votes were given to theRepublican candidate. Straight-ticket Republicanvotes were not counted at all. Initial vote totalsshowed the Republican candidate had won by a1,650 to 1,468 margin. Ultimately, however, theDemocratic candidate won by a two-vote margin –1,703 to 1,701 – in the recount. 469Charleston County, SCAccording to local television station WSCS, localofficials experienced “an error with the machine thatautomatically reads the electronic votes. Thecommission instead decided to enter the informationinto the system manually, a process that took morethan 6 hours.” It was unclear what caused theerror. 470Beaufort County, SCIsland Packet reported that the votes of some votersfor Bluffton Town Council did not appear on thereview screen of the electronic voting machines,leading voters to believe that the votes were notrecorded correctly. Voters who recognized theproblem were able to cast their votes with paperballots. 471Florence and Horry Counties, SCAccording to the Sun News, election officialsincorrectly programmed the voting machines to closeon the wrong date: “In both counties, the votingmachines were incorrectly set to close on Jan. 26, thedate of the Democratic presidential primary, insteadof Jan. 19, the date the Republican primary washeld.” Results were thus delayed as officials couldnot access the data until technicians manually closedeach machine. During polling, voters in HorryCounty also complained of malfunctioningmachines; according to the paper, supplies ofemergency paper ballots “were running out.” 472November ES&S: South Carolina Charleston County, SC86 | Brennan Center for Justice