Evening Sun - 2006 General Election: "There were problems with the vote-counting machine at the SAVES station in McSherrystown this morning, but voting continued."

Mayor's Note: I have visited the precinct and talked with the election judge there and the county election officials ensured every vote was "counted" by the machine.

While I was there, they also had difficulty using the computer voting machine which marks the paper ballot for you, requiring a reboot of that machine.

This would not prevent voting, unless using the touch screen is your only available secret ballot method due to limitations.

A second hand report of one (the?) incident that happened this morning is that a ballot jammed in the machine and would not go through either way.

Also, I heard a second hand report of the need to call the county and using help screens to process a ballot at the Elm Street Conewago (VNA) precinct.

Because of irregularities, I would suggest any race +/- 4% ES&S or similar questionable ballots* to be hand counted.

Yes, these are arbitraty numbers, and probably can't apply to every size of race, but adjust and discuss...

(* any methods that have shown unusual amounts of irregularities or problems / ballots > 0.25%)

If I Was Running Things Pseudocode:
if (sum(ballots at precincts with clear evidence of problem)) > (0.25% of all ballots)
then method = irregular = "smoke"
else method = regular

if (margin of victory) < (4% of all ballots) = recount = "fire"

In any case, every thing is running fine.

I still need to vote! (I'm going to take my daughters with me!)