Incorrect tallying procedure led to faulty vote totals

The error was easily corrected and the totals have been certified.
LANCASTER, Ohio (AP) -- Election officials in Fairfield County used incorrect procedures to tabulate voting results that were certified, prompting the board to hastily convene hours later to correct the totals.
The problem happened when voting machine maker Diebold Inc. failed to notify elections officials about a change in how votes should be totaled because an issue was removed from the statewide ballot, said Andrew Stemen, the board's election information specialist.
"What basically happened is that, because Issue One was removed from the ballot, we had to tell the software to do something different," Stemen said.
The error was easily corrected and three of the four election board members met Tuesday night, about eight hours after the vote was initially certified at 2 p.m., to certify the corrected totals, Fairfield County elections director Deborah Henderly said. No votes were lost.
Potential problem
The company recognized there could be a potential problem with tallies if the software's totaling process wasn't followed correctly, Diebold spokesman David Bear said on Wednesday.
"We tried to reach out to the counties," he said. "Unfortunately it looks like we were remiss in reaching Fairfield in time. We apologize."
The problem became known when reporters from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette examined final election results and noticed the vote tallies didn't add up.
For example, results from Election Day showed a proposed income tax for the Lancaster City Schools passing by 148 votes.
When officials added in 418 votes from provisional ballots the margin of victory was reported as 676 votes, a mathematical impossibility even if all 418 votes had been in favor of the tax.
The measure passed by 159 votes when calculated correctly.
Recalculating the vote totals did not change any results reported on Nov. 7, but a township fire levy officials said failed on Election Day was reported as passed in the first certified vote count Tuesday, Henderly said.
When totals were recalculated the levy failed.
Elections officials are investigating how the miscommunication between the board and Diebold occurred, Stemen said.