From The Sun-Journal, 10/5/04:
http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18297&Section=Local

Election problems due to a software glitch

November 05,2004

Sue Book
Sun Journal

A systems software glitch in Craven County's electronic voting
equipment is being blamed for a vote miscount that, when corrected,
changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday's election.

Then, in the rush to make right the miscalculation that swelled the
number of votes for president here by 11,283 more votes than the total
number cast, a human mistake further delayed accurate totals for the
40,534 who voted.

The glitch occurred Tuesday night as absentee ballot totals for
one-stop early voting at three Craven County locations and ballots
mailed-in were being entered, said Tiffiney Miller, Craven County
Board of Elections director.

The Elections Systems and Software equipment had downloaded voting
information from nine of the county's 26 precincts and as the absentee
ballots were added, the precinct totals were added a second time.

Precincts affected were Havelock East, Havelock West, River Bend, Cove
City, Ernul, Fort Totten, Grover C. Fields, Glenburnie and West New
Bern.

An override, like those occurring when one attempts to save a computer
file that already exists, is supposed to prevent double counting, but
did not function correctly, Miller said.

"I have redone every (personal electronic ballot) completely and am
adding the absentees," she said early Thursday.

"Every precinct was redone."

The second set of incorrect numbers came when the total for one of the
batches of absentee ballots was not included in the first manual
recount.

"That's why we have a week before the votes are official, so if we do
find problems we can get them straight before the votes are
certified," said Miller, who was in her office before 8 a.m. Thursday,
hand-crunching the numbers retrieved from the voting machines.

New numbers put incumbent Commissioner Leon Staton in front of
Republican challenger Tony Michalek for the Craven County Board of
Commissioners District 5 seat.

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Yup.

Harry