Mercer County, Pennsylvania
13 heavily Democratic precincts including several
minority precincts that usually vote 90% Democratic had most electronic
touch screens down all or most of the day. Of those who were able to vote on machines
the machines were malfunctioning
and some were unable to vote for the Democratic presidential
choice. Most in those precincts were
unable to vote with
estimates
of the number unable to vote as high as 4,000 people. And of those who did attempt to vote in these
precincts,
the
undervote rate was as high as 75% in the presidential
race. There was also improper programming of some machines in
minority
precincts and some of the machines were switching votes from Kerry to
Bush. The machines were Unilect Patriot
touch
screens, which also had major problems in other counties.
Findings of the Independent Election Committee, Mercer
County, Pennsylvania, Feb
8 2005
2 precincts had undervotes
over 70%; another
had undervote of 45%; and another over 20%;
5 otther precincts had undervotes over 10% and 46 precincts had undervotes over 5%;
vitruall
all precincts in the oounty had undervotes
over 2%.
The Bureau of Voter Registration and Elections/ Board of
Elections demonstrated remarkable negligence concerning Pennsylvania
Election Law.
Many legal requirements were violated.
There were inadequate checks and balances withing the Board of Voter Registrations and elections.
There was indadequate
preparation and testing of E Voting machines.
Absentee ballots were poorly and improperly handled.
Emergency ballots were poorly and Improperly
handled.
There were no secure ballot boxes at the polling
places.
There were unacceptably high undervote
counts throughout the county.
There were problems with straight ticket voting.
It was not obvious to the voter or election workers if
the machines were working properly.
11/6/2004
Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Glitches with electronic touch-screen
voting machines occurred in about a dozen precincts in the county's
southwestern corner.
(minority/
Dem precincts) http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3720
12/9/2004 Malfeasance PA Mercer County. Amid allegations of
mismanagement and incompetence in the Nov. 2 general election, James
Bennington, Mercer County's director of voter registration and elections, will
quit at the end of the year. Among the complaints being investigated are
electronic voting machines breaking down; a lack of paper ballots to make up
for the broken machines; electronic machines not registering votes; some paper
ballots missing candidates' names; and poll workers making people sign their
paper ballots. Most of the reported problems were in 12 precincts in the
county's southwest region. Coincidentally, all of those precincts have a
Democratic majority. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4208
11/11/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Director of
elections and director of technology said a computer software problem (not
voters incorrectly touching the screen) caused Unilect
Patriot touch-screen voting machines to malfunction in about a dozen precincts.
They said repeated calls to the manufacturer failed to resolve the problem. On
some machines, voters were required to vote backwards, starting on the last
page of the touch-screen system and working back to the front page, in order
for their votes to be counted. [default to Bush] http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3793
11/6/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Problems shut
down Unilect Patriot electronic voting machines for
all or most of the day. Glitches
with electronic touch-screen voting machines occurred in about a dozen
precincts in the county's southwestern corner.
Accuracy
of the Unilect Patriot machines are
in serious question. One machine recorded 51 votes for president out of 289
ballots cast. The county's Web site reports that 51,818 people cast ballots
but 47,768 ballots were recorded in the presidential race, including 61
write-ins. About 4,000 votes could be unaccounted for, mostly from minority
precincts. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3720
11/3/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Computer
software errors caused Unilect touch-screen voting machines
to malfunction in about a dozen precincts Tuesday. Some machines never
operated, some offered only black screens and some required voters to vote
backwards, starting on the last page of the touch-screen system and working
back to the front page. Some of those systems never came back on line http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3674
12/9/2004 Fraud (misc) PA Mercer
County. James Bennington, Mercer County's director of voter registration and
elections, admitted he programmed some of the computers incorrectly and
failed to test properly. One of the most significant voting problems found
in the county was the recorded undervote,
which is when the number of votes cast is lower than the number of people who
voted. Across Mercer County, there was a 7.29 percent undervote. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4208
EIRS cases
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031283 11/02/04, 6:44 AM
PST Machine problem shenango township municipal 3439
Hubbard W. Middlesex Rd. 724 528 2533, mercer County, Pennsylvania Touch screen machine;
voter said that there is a review button; when selected names of candidates
appeared but no indication of how voter voted on review screen; called over
election official who said that "you're ok"; voter believes that her
vote was not recorded. (or perhaps recorded for wrong
choice) Voter says many others having same problem; on
elderly voter took 15 mins, still didn't succeed.
033237 11/02/04,
7:39 AM
PST Machine problem Volunteer fire
department; 415
New Castle Road, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, precinct where machines
have been down all morning;
Complaint # 031302
033679 11/02/04, 8:10 AM
PST Machine problem, 500 Darr Avenue, Farrell, Mercer
County, Pennsylvania All voter machines in (many)Mercer County (precincts) are
down; voters only got paper ballots
after waiting for three hours. Ballots don't look legitimate --
instructions are blurred and hard to read, and voter doesn't trust the process.
Mercer County District Attorney James Epstein has come down to different
polling places in Mercer County to try to figure out what's going on, but there
is no tech support around.
33933 11/02/04, 8:10 AM
PST Machine problem; Insufficient number of ballots Wheatland, Farrell,
Hermitage SW 1, Hermitage (votes at Kennedy Christian), Mercer County,
Pennsylvania Machines at all four
polling places are all broken because they are out of paper or are otherwise
not working
034369 11/02/04, 9:25 AM
PST Machine problem ???, Mercer County, Pennsylvania The caller, a worker for AFL-CIO,
called to pass on a complaint they received regarding three towns in PA --
Sharon; Farrell; and Wheatland -- all in Mercer County. The caller received a
call that the voting machines are down in these three towns and that they have
been down for a number of hours (he did not know the exact polling places
except for the one in Farrell, on Dora Ave.) and that there are no paper
ballots
035421 11/02/04, 9:12 AM
PST Machine problem John Hetra School, Memorial
Drive; and Farrell Public Library, Roemer Blvd.; Southwest Garden, Darr Ave., Mercer County, Pennsylvania New electronic voting machines are not working -- none
of them! -- and paper ballots ran out, so voters are
told to come back later.
037245 11/02/04, 10:29 AM
PST Machine problem SW1 in Hermanage PA, Hermantage, Mercer County, Pennsylvania Sarrell has computers down, district 241,322, 241,323 is not working, district,
241321 is barely working; Sharon PA preceincts
4-1, 4-2, 4-3 and 2-4 are down; middlesex is down, wheatland is down, delaware twsp has 3/5 computers down, SE1 in Hermanage
PA has 1 voting machine down.
038671 11/02/04, 11:11 AM
PST Machine problem VFD West Middlesex, Mercer County, Pennsylvania complaint #
033237; machines down
039186 11/02/04, 11:27 AM
PST Machine problem Farrell High School and Farrell Library, Mercer County,
Pennsylvania 1 1/2 hours before got paper ballot; 45 people in line; told to leave and come back; not
given option paper ballot
042256 11/02/04,
1:27 PM
PST Machine problem Musser
School, Sharon, Mercer
County, Pennsylvania Went this morning to vote and electronic machines were
out. Stephen votes by paper ballot. His wife waited for machine to be fixed.
While she was waiting, man from Mercer
Board of Election showed up. He told
stephens wife that none of
the paper votes would count because they weren't sealed properly - his wife
is very upset.
046290 11/02/04,
3:54 PM
PST Machine problem Case
Avenue School, Sharon, Mercer
County, Pennsylvania After caller voted, a screen appeared that showed all
of his selections. All of his candidates
appeared except for his vote for a presidential candidate. Caller tried
several times to go back and cast another vote for a presidential candidate but
could not get his selection to register
on the machine. After speaking with his wife and daughter, caller discovered that they had also had the same problem,