Mar. 20, 2007 -- Associated Press -- DAYTON, Ohio - Montgomery County elections officials who tested 285 touch-screen electronic voting machines in response to voter complaints from the November election encountered calibration problems in 56 of them, the elections chief said Tuesday.
Of those 56 machines, 17 couldn't be recalibrated and will be returned to maker Diebold Inc. for repair, said Steve Harsman, director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
Twenty voters have said their votes did not appear properly on the screen when they were voting in the election.
If a touch-screen machine is not calibrated properly, voters touching the box next to one candidate might have their vote cast for the candidate above or below, Harsman said. However, the voters can review their votes - both on a summary screen and on a printout - to make sure they are correct before submitting a ballot, he said.
Harsman said he has found no instances of votes being displayed on the screen and recorded - or cast - differently.
"Every vote that was cast was securely and accurately counted by the system," said Diebold spokesman Mark Radke. "Some of the machines did have a calibration issue."
Harsman believes the calibration on some of the machines - as many as 80 percent - was off because the machines were jarred, bumped or dropped when they were transported to the polling places. He said 22 of the 56 miscalibrated machines were in four of the 23 precincts reviewed.
Harsman said that, in future elections, he plans to make sure machines are more secure during transport and may calibrate the machines after they are delivered to polling places and have voters use a stylus rather than their fingers when they vote.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sent three representatives to observe the testing and will use the experience to assist with a planned statewide review of electronic voting machines, said spokesman Patrick Gallaway.
