LAWRENCE COUNTY Computer software glitches hold up ballot tabulations

A second glitch was discovered later in the night.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Computer software glitches kept Lawrence County election officials working into the early morning hours counting ballots.
Workers didn't come up with a final count until about 3:30 this morning.
The problem was discovered about 10:30 p.m., according to Sam Scialdone, election board president.
Status report
A status report showing the number of voters in each district counted zero Democratic voters in 29 of Lawrence County's 106 voting precincts, said Marlene Gabriel, Lawrence County's election director.
Election officials were unsure if those votes not reflected on the status report had been included in the final tally.
Eventually ballots from all 29 districts were recounted and checked against the previous results. The county uses an optical scanner system to tabulate its votes. The machines were purchased in 1985.
County Court Administrator Philip Boudewyns, who has previously served on the county election board as president, said they later discovered that the optical scanner machines were correctly counting the ballots, but disks transferred from the tabulating machines to the county's computer system were corrupted.
Second glitch
A second computer glitch occurred when officials tried to add the results from ripped or torn ballots to results tabulated from the other ballots, he said.
Boudewyns said county officials were able to rework the computer software to merge the two numbers.
County commissioners have discussed buying an electronic voting system, but tabled the idea until after the primary election.