PanamaTimes

Saturday, Sep 07, 2024

Election machines reported more votes than ballots in two Virginia precincts, nonprofit alleges

The two precincts were in Virginia's 7th and 10th Congressional Districts.
Election machines reported more votes than physical ballots cast in two precincts in an influential Virginia county, raising concerns about election administration in the midterms after the county's former registrar was charged earlier this year with multiple election-related offenses.

In Prince William County, one of Virginia's most important electoral counties, at least two precincts had more ballots reported on the machine scanners' tallies of ballots than were tabulated by election officers, according to a report by Electoral Process Education Corporation (EPEC), a nonprofit that performs election data analysis.

A board of directors member of EPEC told Just the News on Monday that precincts P-612 and P-104 were the ones affected by the discrepant vote totals. P-612 is in Virginia's 7th Congressional District, and P-104 is in the 10th.

Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger won the 7th CD against GOP nominee Yesli Vega, and Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton won reelection in the 10th CD against Republican candidate Hung Cao.

In P-612, the ballot scanner reported 531 ballots scanned, but only 504 ballots were actually collected in the machine. Election officers realized the discrepancy when comparing the check-ins on the poll books to the number of ballots the scanner had reported.

The issues were documented by election officers with the General Registrar and Electoral Board, and the information was recorded in the official statement of results and chief's notes.

Election officers hand-counted the ballots according to election procedures multiple times. The outcome was 27 more votes on the machine tallies than physical ballots. A total of 22 of those votes were for the Democratic candidate, three for the Republican, and two write-ins.

In P-104, there were only about 5-10 more ballots on the machine tallies compared to physical ballots out of a total of 1505 ballots cast.

While the discrepancies won't change the outcome of the elections, and no other errors have been discovered, the issue has yet to be explained.

Prince William County's Office of Elections didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.

EPEC "is urging Virginia's public election officials to verify scanner machine ballot counts before certification of results in key precincts as a result of recent findings."

The nonprofit added, "Although the number of ballots impacted was small, the repeated findings raise questions about the origin of the errors and whether the machines were operating correctly."

The county election results are to be certified by the electoral board on Tuesday. Certification includes seeing how many people voted, what ballots were rejected, and checking provisional ballots.

EPEC is requesting that election officials pull out equipment at precincts that had discrepancies between the physical ballots and machine tallies, which is part of the election process, and "perform a full hand count and tabulation audit"; compare physical ballots "with the Scanner Report Tapes, the full Cast Vote Record (CVR), Digital Ballot Images and other machine records and logs"; ensure the election equipment is in compliance "with Virginia's election statutes by certifying software, hardware, and programming hash codes, and then checking randomly selected precincts with the same equipment but with no reported issues"; and update procedure that would "require verification that the number of ballots in the scanner collection bin match the scanner result report tape," and if they do not match, then perform a hand count and record the results.

These issues in Prince William County come after the county's former registrar of voters, Michele White, was charged in September with two felony counts alleging corrupt conduct as an election official and making a false statement, and one misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty by an elected official.

White had resigned abruptly last year without explanation, and current Director of Elections/General Registrar Eric Olsen reported "discrepancies" to the commissioner of elections and State Board of Elections earlier this year, which led to the investigation by the state attorney general.

In October, White's trial was scheduled for April.
Comments

Oh ya 2 year ago
The only way Democrats win elections is by cheating

Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
BRAZIL’S SUPREME COURT MINISTER ORDERS EXPLANATION ON X BLOCKING
Porn streamer OnlyFans paid owner $630mn in dividends
Donald Trump will not face sentencing over his 'hush money' conviction before the US presidential election on November 5, after a Manhattan judge granted his request to delay the proceeding
Return of Brazilian Artworks to Bahia
France Pilots Mobile Phone Ban in Schools
WHO-Led Study Finds No Link Between Mobile Phones and Brain Cancer
Kamala Harris is in Detroit and has a new accent again
EU Rejects Maduro’s Election Win Claim in Venezuela
Former Red Brigades Member Arrested in Argentina After 40 Years on Run
Elon Musk Accuses Brazilian Supreme Court Justice of Election Interference
Universe May Have Had a Pre-Big Bang 'Secret Life'
Ecuador's Narco Violence Threatens Scientists and Conservation Efforts
Brazilian Judge Alexandre de Moraes Blocks Elon Musk's X
Nаkеd American woman gropes security
Tsimane Tribe: Secrets to Health and Slow Ageing
OpenAI Blocks Iranian Group's ChatGPT Accounts for Election Interference
WHO Declares Mpox Global Health Emergency Again
Decline in World Records at Paris Olympics: An Analysis
EU Pressures Elon Musk Over Trump Interview
UN Reports Lowest Global Youth Unemployment Rate in 15 Years
Fatal Plane Crash Near Sao Paulo
Snoop Dogg: The Feel-Good Spirit of the Paris Olympics
McDonald's Worker Sets Restaurant On Fire Over Customer Frustration
Kamala Harris Confirmed as Democratic Candidate for US Presidential Election
Controversies at the Paris Olympics
Elon Musk Accepts Fight Challenge from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
First Case of 'Virgin Birth' in Endangered Shark Species in Italy
G20 Fails to Reach Agreement on Global Billionaire Tax
Mexican Drug Lords El Mayo and El Chapo's Son Arrested in Texas
World's Hottest Day Recorded on July 21
Joe Biden Withdraws from 2024 US Presidential Race
A Week of Turmoil: Key Moments in US Politics
Global IT Outage Sparks Major Concerns
Global IT Outage Unveils Digital Vulnerabilities
Secret Service Criticized for Lack of Sniper Protection During Trump Shooting
Colombian Court Annuls Amazon Tribes’ Carbon Credit Deal
Sunita Williams Safe on ISS, to Address Earth on July 10
Biden Affirms Commitment To Presidential Race
Boeing Pleads Guilty Over 737 MAX Crashes
Beryl Storm Hits Texas, Killing 2 and Causing Major Power Outages
2024 Predicted to Be World's Hottest Year
Macron Faces New Political Challenges Despite Election Relief
Florida Man Arrested Over Attempt to Withdraw One Cent
Anger mounts at Biden’s top team after disastrous debate
Bolivian President Luis Arce Denies 'Self-Coup' Allegations
Steve Bannon Begins 4-Month Prison Sentence
Biden Warns of 'Dangerous Precedent' After Supreme Court Immunity Ruling in Trump Case
Elon Musk Accuses Kamala Harris of Misleading Post on Trump's Abortion Stance
Hunter Biden Sues Fox News Over 'Revenge Porn' Allegations
New York Times Editorial Board Urges Biden to Exit Presidential Race
×