Machines changing votes: Reports of problems in MS primary runoff

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Election problems: Video, reports of machines automatically changing votes from Waller to Reeves

There have been at least three reports confirmed by officials of voting machines in two counties changing voters' selections in the state's GOP governor primary runoff.

In one case, the glitch was caught on video.

Tuesday morning, Facebook user Sally Kate Walker posted a video showing what appeared to be a touch-screen machine changing someone's selection from Bill Waller Jr. to Tate Reeves.

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While officials confirmed the problems only with three machines in two counties, the Waller campaign early Tuesday evening said it had received more widespread reports of the same issue.

The campaign said it has received reports of the same issues from Leflore, Lamar, Pearl River, Lincoln, Washington, Forrest and Scott counties.

Waller, a former Supreme Court Chief justice, and Lt. Gov. Reeves are in a runoff for the Republican primary to determine who will face Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood in the November general election.

Reeves led the Aug. 6 balloting with 49% of the vote to Waller's 33%.

The voter clicks Waller's name over a dozen times over the course of the 14-second video. The vote automatically changes to Reeves.

He says, "It is not letting me vote for who I want to vote for." A woman in the background asks, "How can that happen?"

According to a comment Walker made under the video, the malfunction happened at the Burgess voting precinct in Oxford.

Anna Moak, spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office, said their office was made aware of the issue earlier Tuesday morning and contacted Lafayette County. Officials there, she said, then dispatched a technician to the precinct.

The machine was a TSX machine, Moak said, and is being replaced. Moak pointed out that "machines are county-owned and tested by local officials" and "to our knowledge, only one machine was malfunctioning."

Nineteen votes were cast on that machine prior to the error being detected, she said.

Two other machines in Calhoun County have also "jumped," with at least one voter also attempting to vote for Waller but having their ballot automatically changed to Reeves, said Circuit Clerk Carlton Baker.

At the Northeast Calhoun precinct, also known as Chickenbone Baptist Church, a woman complained after "mashing the button" three times to vote for Waller but the machine kept switching her vote to Reeves, Baker said. On her fourth attempt, the machine cast her ballot for Waller. As of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, a technician was working on the machine.

Then, at the Masonic Hall precinct in Vardaman, another voter complained of the machine "jumping" when they tried to cast their ballot. Baker did not know who that voter was attempting to vote for. That machine was taken out of commission until the technician could arrive, Baker said.

There are 9,328 registered voters in Calhoun County and 10 precincts, he said.

Like the machine in Oxford, the machines in Calhoun County were TSX models. Both were purchased from Election Systems and Software, Baker said.

He did not immediately know how many votes had been cast on the machines but was in the process of finding out.

"We're doing what we can to rectify the situation," he said.

This story is developing and may be updated.

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Contact Sarah Fowler at 601-961-7303 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

PoliticalSquid on August 27th, 2019 at 17:32 UTC »

In Ireland, the government bought voting machines about 15-20 years ago. Big PR campaign about them. Lots of money invested. Nevertheless opposition parties and the public made such a stink about them that they were never used. I’m wondering now if they ever sold those machines on?

Paper ballots are the only secure method to conduct elections.

not_a_lizard-person on August 27th, 2019 at 16:52 UTC »

I think everyone should bring thier phones to vote and take videos if something seems fishy, and report it immediately.

Edit: But don't get arrested.

henke on August 27th, 2019 at 16:19 UTC »

That video is crazy. They tap the name of candidate they want to vote for like 15 times and it won’t select.