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Sarasota Replaces 6 Faulty Voting Machines

Posted Jan 29, 2008 by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Updated Jan 29, 2008 at 04:02 PM

From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

Six optical-scan voting machines had to be replaced this morning in Sarasota because they were not working.

“They were all tested before, and for various reasons they just went bad,” said Kathy Dent, Sarasota County supervisor of elections.

Some machines had problems with memory cards. Others had faulty scanners.

Dent said backup machines are located downtown and in southern Sarasota County, and crews are on standby to rush the new machines to precincts where problems are reported.

“They are replacing the scanners as soon as we get the call,” she said.

In the case of a machine failure, poll workers are collecting voters’ ballots and placing them into a designated bin.

Those ballots will be entered into the system via the scan machines after the polls close at 7 tonight.

Dent said she was not sure how many ballots would be counted tonight.