Union County ballot machines, voters avoid glitches
Jun. 14—Iowa county auditors have been informed of a possible cause for a ballot machine error noticed during the June 7 Primary election influencing some counties to have a recount.
Union County Auditor Sandy Hysell said Monday there were no problems during the voting process, but other counties had issues. Hysell said a power outage during a storm in Creston shut off election machines in two Creston precincts, but once power was restored the voting numbers and ballots were not compromised.
Page County Auditor and Creston native Melissa (Giza) Wellhausen said voting machine provider Unisyn reported multiple instances of paper jams when voters inserted ballots into the tabulator. She was given approval by the county's board of supervisors to perform an administrative recount of ballots. Wellhausen said each machine was tested before June 7.
Unisyn contacted several counties through the Iowa Secretary of State office June 8 informing them of problems discovered.
"There were some people who took a finished ballot to the machine and may have didn't time it right leaving it in the tabulator machine or tried to force it in, but the machine kicked it back out," Wellhausen said. "But it potentially counted that ballot as going through."
The incidents caused the number on the tabulators to increase and gave the appearance more ballots were cast than the number of voters. Wellhausen said seven precincts were speculated to have one extra ballot cast in Page County. A Page County Supervisor seat was a contested race on the ballot.
"For races that there was a significant margin this really won't be an issue," she said, "but potentially in any federal race, or state race, or local race that it's a close race, this could impact that."
The supervisor race had a 2-1 ratio of votes between the candidates. The recount did not change the results.
The Iowa State Association of Counties offered a survey to its members about machine irregularities last week. As of Monday morning, 57 counties responded; 29 had a problem and 27 scheduled a recount.
"Unisyn is currently working on a root cause analysis to determine exactly what occurred. We are working closely with Unisyn during this process so that a plan is in place to prevent this issue from occurring again in November. As details come forward we will keep everybody informed of the plan for November," according to a letter from the Iowa Secretary of State office to counties.
Henry M. Adkins & Son Vice President Dustin Vanderburg, an election services provider, said in a statement the possible cause for the error.
"We have also received questions regarding this anomaly only occurring on older machines and using this to press counties to upgrade equipment. There is a current theory that this only occurred on older machines, however, we would never use this to try to persuade anybody to upgrade voting equipment...We fully intend to address this situation and continue to maintain your current voting equipment into the foreseeable future. We value each and every one of you and would never jeopardize our relationship in that manner," according to a statement.
A special election for Lorimor City Council is scheduled for Aug. 2.
In other Union County Supervisor news...
The canvass of the June 7 primary was approved with no changes.
Stan Harris asked the county for the secondary roads department to remove fallen trees blocking traffic on 190th Street and Lark Street, both Class C roads. He claimed the county crews won't help. Harris said he uses the roads to to get to pasture land. He hauls a four-wheeler in his pickup to use to get around the tree since his pickup can't. He knows of other farmers in the are who use the roads to get to their properties.
"I don't think we can do that," Harris said he was told by secondary road staff about moving the trees. He said one tree has been there since April and the second tree probably fell during the June 7 storm.
After Harris left, Secondary Road Superintendent Al Hysell arrived at the meeting and was informed of Harris' situation. Hysell said Class C roads only receive minimal maintenance and removing debris is not part of the policy. Adjacent landowners or others are responsible for clearing Class C roads of debris. Class C roads are dirt surface and may get graded once a year.
"I will verify that," Hysell said about the department's plan for Class C roads. "I will let somebody know."
At the request of Dale Cline, supervisors planned to go to the park in Kent to see how trees have fallen and damaged fences along county property line. Cline also asked the county what they can do to make repairs. Supervisors agreed to first tour the damage.
