Panel asks to question company

The committee wants to know why software didn't catch a programing error.
MERCER, Pa. -- The committee appointed to investigate the Nov. 2 general election in Mercer County wants a meeting next week with Unilect, the California company that sold the Patriot Touch Screen voting system to the county three years ago.
Dr. Michael Coulter, committee chairman and an associate professor at Grove City College, said Monday evening that the committee, which was appointed by county commissioners, wants to know why the software did not catch a programming error which disabled voting machines in 12 precincts in the 4th Congressional District. It also has questions about unusually high "under votes" reported in the county. In an under vote, a person votes in the election, but does not cast a ballot in the presidential race. This might indicate votes which were cast and somehow lost.
Unilect will be asked to send a representative to answer questions when the committee next meets at 3:30 p.m. Monday in the county courthouse. Representatives from the county information technology department will also be asked to attend that meeting, which will focus on the technological aspect of the election difficulties.
The committee also set a public meeting for 7 p.m. Dec. 21 at the Farrell City building for workers from the 12 precincts in the 4th Congressional District, where voting machines failed to work Election Day.
The committee spent two hours Monday questioning county commissioners about Election Day events, Coulter said.
While Bennington told the committee last week that he did not learn about computer problems in the 4th Congressional District until 9 a.m. Election Day, Commissioners Brian Beader and Olivia Lazor, both Democrats, told the committee Monday that they went to the election office at the courthouse at 8 a.m. to give notice of the problems, Coulter said.
Commissioner Michele Brooks, a Republican, reported she was not notified of the problems until 9 a.m. Beader also told the committee that Bennington was not always responsive to commissioners' directions and that he wanted to fire Bennington even before the election.
However, the committee learned that while Bennington had, before the election, presented commissioners with a list showing the distribution of voting machines and asked how many provisional and paper ballots should be supplied to precincts, the commissioners did not respond with written instructions, Coulter said.
One of the criticisms of the Nov. 2 election was that when voting machines failed in the 12 affected precincts, there were not enough paper ballots to use as a backup. Bennington had earlier stated that he generally provided enough paper ballots for 5 percent of the precinct. However, Coulter said, the committee found Monday that he gave more than that.