Last Updated on November 7, 2023
Voting machines in multiple Pennsylvania precincts were shut down after they flipped cast votes from one candidate to another, the very same issue that was found to have happened in multiple states in 2020 as unprecedented election fraud gripped the nation. The shutting down of the voting machines in Pennsylvania could mark the first time that a government has actually acknowledged that the machines are flipping votes.
The vote flipping is being chalked up to a human-induced “coding error” and came in Pennsylvania’s Northampton County, where voters were deciding whether two incumbent Pennsylvania Superior Court Judges should keep their jobs or not. When voters would select whether or not to retain the judges, their votes were flipping – a key feature of the 2020 election fraud that plagued Pennsylvania and precincts all over the country.
Though the electronic, touchscreen voting machines produced by ES&S were reportedly shut down for a brief period of time, they’ve since been turned back on by court order and county officials claim that they’ll be able to correct the matter AFTER the voters are cast, dismissing the issue a “relatively minor glitch”.
Though, as mentioned, the vote flipping is being chalked up to human error, it’s raised serious alarms all over the country as the news has spread, with many asking how such a glaring “error” could actually take place and not be discovered until election day.
Another serious set of questions being raised is this; if votes can be flipped by “error” how much damage could be done intentionally before anyone actually noticed and how easily can the voting machine codes be manipulated to cover the whole scheme up?
More information from The Washington Post:
A coding error in an eastern Pennsylvania county caused votes to be flipped on a ballot question that asked whether a pair of incumbent state appeals judges should be retained, officials said Tuesday.
Voters were asked to decide whether Pennsylvania Superior Court Judges Jack Panella and Victor Stabile should be retained for additional 10-year terms. The “yes” or “no” votes for each judge were being switched because of the error, said Lamont McClure, the Northampton County executive. If a voter marked “yes” to retain Panella and “no” on Stabile, for example, it was reflected as “no” on Panella and “yes” on Stabile.
McClure said voters first noticed the error on the printed voting records produced by the touchscreen machines.
The issue affected all the county’s voting machines in use Tuesday, which McClure estimated at more than 300. The Pennsylvania Department of State said the problem was isolated to the two retention votes in Northampton County and that no other races statewide were affected.
The county obtained a court order Tuesday after the problem was discovered that allowed the machines to continue to be used. When the votes are tabulated, they will be corrected so that “Panella’s votes will be returned to Panella, and Stabile’s will be returned to Stabile,” said McClure, who leads the county 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Philadelphia.
McClure called it a “relatively minor glitch” and said in a phone interview that “everybody’s vote’s going to count” as the voters intended. Poll workers were instructed to inform voters of the glitch before they entered the voting booth.
McClure blamed a coding error by voting machine company Election Systems & Software, which he said the county’s elections staff failed to pick up during testing.
ES&S acknowledged fault. A company spokesperson, Katina Granger, said the problem was caused by human error, was limited to Northampton County and only affected the judicial retention question.