Phillipsburg (NJ) man discovers voting machine error

[Kire]

Phillipsburg man discovers voting machine error - UPDATE
Published: Tuesday, November 08, 2011, 11:53 AM

Richard Rumfield was the first person to cast his vote at 6 o'clock this morning at the town municipal building in Phillipsburg.

But as he was about to submit his choices, he realized an error with the machine. Rather than choosing the names he checked on his straight ticket, the machine had compiled the names listed below his preferred candidates.

Rumfield alerted a poll worker, who noted the error and said they'd report the malfunctioning machine. By going back through each question, and answering opposite of what he had the first time, Rumfield was able to manually choose the candidates for whom he actually wanted to vote, but he said he still left the polling place unsatisfied.

"Suppose there's other machines in the town or Warren County that are rigged," he said. "This machine should have been checked out before anyone was even voting on it."

Bill Duffy, administrator and chief clerk for the Warren County Board of Elections, said the machines were calibrated in early October, but it's not uncommon for them to have trouble on Election Day.

"There's always one or two that just give us a problem," he said.

More: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/elections/index.ssf/2011/11/phillipsburg_man_discovers_vot.html



UPDATE: Phillipsburg's second malfunctioning voting machine taken out of service
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/phillipsburg/index.ssf/2011/11/second_malfunctioning_phillips.html

[valerief]

1. One or two. Ha! They're programmed to err by criminals. nt

[elleng]

2. AND SO IT CONTINUES!

:evilfrown: :evilfrown: :evilfrown:

[appleannie1]

3. Machine acting up my foot. They just hope people won't double check.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. My NJ has similar machines. And that's why I vote early and by paper.

[Wilms]

5. And the paper will be counted by a machine no less vulnerable than the one in the OP.

Just sayin'. :(