[glatt]

First known e-voting glitch. This one mysteriously gave Bush a few thousand extra votes from one machine.

Did this happen elsewhere, but was only discovered in one place?
Computer glitch give Bush extra votes

In one precinct, Bush’s tally was supersized by a computer glitch
Friday, November 05, 2004
Jim Woods
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A computer error involving one voting-machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.

Franklin County’s unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry’s 260 votes in Precinct 1B, which votes at New Life Church on Stygler Road. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there.

The remaining 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president.

Damschroder said he received some calls yesterday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board’s Web site.

"It’s why the results on election night are unofficial," Damschroder said.

The error would have been discovered when the official canvass for the election is performed, he said.

Election workers will start certifying the official election results later this month. The final, official tally will be available by the end of the month.

This is what happened, Damschroder said:

Gahanna Precinct 1B has three voting machines. After the polling station closed, the cartridges were taken to a computerized reading station.

When one of the cartridges from the precinct was plugged into a reader, it generated the faulty number.

The reader also recorded zero votes in the race between Arlene Shoemaker and Paula Brooks for county commissioner.

Damschroder said the cartridge was retested yesterday and there were no problems. He couldn’t explain why the computer reader malfunctioned.

When workers checked the cartridge against memory banks in the voting machine yesterday, each showed that 115 people voted for Bush on that machine. With the other two machines, the total for Bush in the precinct added up to 365 votes.

So far, Damschroder said, no other problems have surfaced.

When election workers do the official canvass, all cartridges from voting machines are rechecked