The Evansville Courier-Press reports today:
The Vanderburgh County Commissioners voted unanimously to conduct an "independent audit" of the Nov. 2 election results, following complaints about possible malfunctions of the county's touch-screen voting machines. Reports of breakdowns of the machines and long voter lines that forced some voters to wait up to three hours to cast their ballots set the stage for the decision at Monday's meeting. * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at November 10, 2004 06:18 AM"We need to make sure this equipment was working properly," said commissioners president Catherine Fanello, who last week issued a call for an independent evaluation of the performance of voting equipment used in the election. Fanello cited a series of complaints from election workers and voters, as well as reports around the country of other counties confronting problems with their touch-screen voting machines.Vanderburgh County is leasing the machines under a five-year, $2.9 million agreement.
Among the complaints Fanello said she'd heard was that the machines, manufactured by Election Systems & Software, malfunctioned for some who tried to cast "straight-party" ballots. Some who cast straight-party Democratic ballots saw their votes show up as votes for the Republican Party. Despite assurances from a company official that the equipment had passed federal standards and had withstood rigorous testing, Fanello said any computer-based technology has the potential to go awry. * * *