OxfordPress.com

A problem with vote tabulation equipment first discovered in Butler County in March has led to a nationwide alert by Premier Election Solutions that a computer coding error in vote counting equipment can cause votes to be uncounted.

Officials emphasize that although the problem cannot be immediately fixed, procedural measures can be taken to make sure that no votes are missed during the Nov. 4 general election.

The company alerted users in 34 states of the problem, which occurred during vote counts in 11 Ohio counties, including Butler, Montgomery, Greene and Miami. According to an as yet incomplete tally, at least 1,000 votes were initially uncounted in nine of the 44 Ohio counties using Premier's touch screen or optical scan voting equipment, said Kevin Kidder, spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Officials eventually caught the problem, in some cases mistakenly attributing it to human error, and votes were counted.

Nationwide, 1,750 jurisdictions use Premier's equipment.

Premier, a subsidiary of North Canton-based Diebold Inc., had initially blamed anti-virus software in the computer servers that upload votes from memory cards used in electronic machines or optical scan ballots. In May Premier suggested that anti-virus protection be turned off during vote counts and that reports be run to ensure all votes were accounted for.

Although the tabulation computers are never to be connected to the Internet or any open network, the anti-virus software protects against computer viruses introduced through Word documents containing ballot language and against the theoretical possibility of the memory cards themselves having a virus.

"Disabling anti-virus software at any stage of the voting process is a dangerous recommendation that goes against every accepted computer security protocol," said Jeff Ortega, spokesman for Brunner's office.

Butler County officials, who discovered the problem in March, didn't believe that anti-virus software was the problem and pressed the issue until their machines were tested by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Premier earlier this month.

Premier spokesman Chris Riggall said the intense testing effort, done with anti-virus software disabled, revealed the problem with the coding. The company has revised the code and is testing it but it could be many months before it is federally certified to be used to fix the problem on the computer servers.

"We are distressed that our initial analysis of this issue was incomplete and we regret that," Riggall said.

He said users are being urged to confirm, via audit reports, that uploaded ballots have actually been counted by the machine. Brunner's office is working on guidelines for boards to follow in November to make sure the votes are counted, Ortega said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7455 or lhulsey@coxohio.com.