Glitches halt Flathead vote count

The Daily Inter Lake

Computer glitches and human error caused unprecedented delays in the vote count in Flathead County Tuesday, and eventually led officials to throw out the first count and start over again after midnight.

"We're going to be here for many hours, but I'd rather have it right." said Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson.

By 11:45 p.m., only four precincts out of 40 had been counted. However, several glitches were apparent.

In the I-147 vote count, for instance, the county's vendor of election software - Election Systems Software of Addison, Texas - apparently failed to program in a "no" category, so none of the votes against I-147 were counted in Flathead County's initial scan of paper ballots.

In Precinct 42, the Swan River area, the vote tally showed a 176 percent voter turnout, with 1,740 ballots cast but only 984 registered voters.

Election officials said that glitch occurred because the person scanning in results lost the place in the count while working on the computer glitch.

The county tried to proceed with scanning, but the Election Department was obviously overwhelmed by new technology, high voter turnout, and software or human errors. Eventually, Election Systems Software agreed to send new software via the Internet, and it was decided to initiate a new count.

Diane Murer, the county's election director, said, "This is the second election on this system and we're still learning the ins and outs. We're taking a few nicks."

At just after midnight, Murer said the software was expected to arrive within a half hour and counting of ballots would resume. Results on most races were not expected until late in the morning.