Genessee County, MI Elections Officials Report Another ES&S Optical Scan System Failure

Similarly failed systems set for use in all 50 states this November...

By Ernest A. Canning and Brad Friedman

8/17/2012

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Election officials in Genessee County, Michigan have acknowledged failures by the county's M-100 model optical-scan system, made by Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S), during its Aug. 7 primary.

According to the county's Supervisor of Elections and Vital Records, Doreen D. Fulcher, the system experienced paper jams that resulted in ballots being fed through the system more than once. Fulcher, who also noted that there were a "number of ballots cast" that "didn't initially match poll book numbers," downplayed the scope of the problem. Flint's MLive, however, reported that the County Board of Canvassers were "still unraveling" the problem ten days after the election.

It is not the first time the M-100, set to be used in 32 different states again this November, has caused headaches for election officials and voters. The systems have a documented record of failing to count the same ballots the same way twice during pre-election testing. Nor is it the only optical-scan system made by ES&S, the largest e-voting vendor in the nation, that has failed time and again during elections.

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As we reported exclusively last weekend, according to the citizen auditors, that hand count effort has so far discovered that tallies "have differed, sometimes significantly, from the recorded numbers" reported on Election Night. They also say that, in the 10 counties they've hand-audited to date, the group is finding that "sometimes the numbers on the poll tapes" --- the machine result print-outs created after the close of polls by paper-ballot optical-scan computers as well as touch-screen devices, where they are used --- "do not match the numbers reported" by election officials on Election Night.

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