Glitch Worries Utah Elections Officials

None by KCPW

Optical Scanners Miscount Absentee Ballots in Ohio

(KCPW News) A technical snafu that has Ohio officials steaming about last week's primary in Cuyahoga County is raising the alarm in Utah. The problem is with scanners that are supposed to count absentee and provisional ballots - and Salt Lake County has the very same scanners and electronic voting machines.

Ohio officials were forced to count 15-thousand absentee ballots by hand. Preliminary tests in Salt Lake County indicate the scanners - which read ballots marked in pen or ink similar to standardized tests in school - are accurate, but much slower than expected. County Clerk Sherrie Swensen says the June primary will only yield a few thousand absentee and provisional ballots compared to the 20-thousand expected in November. The optical scan machines are made by Diebold - the same company that makes electronic machines voters will use to cast their ballots. Yesterday, the Cuyahoga County board of elections launched an investigation into issues surrounding the trouble-ridden primary.

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