Butler County missed 105 votes
BY GREGORY KORTE | GKORTE@ENQUIRER.COM
A recently discovered computer glitch caused at least 105 votes in West Chester to go missing after the March 4 primary election, Butler County election officials said.
Two computer cards containing votes from touch-screen voting machines were not uploaded on election night – even though the computer reported that all cards had been read. Those votes have since been counted and were included in final, official results approved last week.
Officials say they don’t yet know whether the same glitch may have affected results from previous elections in Butler County or elsewhere. Forty-four of Ohio’s 88 counties – including the urban counties of Lucas (Toledo), Montgomery (Dayton) and Stark (Canton) also use the same software – from Premier Election Solutions – as their primary vote-counting system.
And Butler County Elections Director Betty L. McGary said she’s concerned because normal auditing procedures might not have discovered the error – at least not right away.
“Quite frankly, if it’s off by five votes or 105 votes, I want to know what’s causing it. Especially if it’s a close election,” McGary said, “If we cannot produce accurate and reliable numbers, then it throws the entire process in question, and that’s not something we want to have happen.”
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