A coding error in Northampton County, Pennsylvania’s voting machines caused a significant issue during a recent election. The glitch resulted in votes being incorrectly flipped on a ballot question concerning the retention of two state judges.
This malfunction affected the votes for Pennsylvania Superior Court Judges Jack Panella and Victor Stabile. Specifically, votes marked “yes” to retain one judge and “no” for the other were being switched on the printouts from touchscreen voting machines. This information comes directly from County Executive Lamont McClure, as reported by The Associated Press.
This is why Americans have a growing distrust of the system. It baffles me how Democrats consistently screw up the execution of elections to the peril and misfortune of the voter.
Make Elections Safe and Secure AGAIN!!! https://t.co/XhAMS3vLJo
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) November 7, 2023
The problem was significant enough to impact over 300 machines. Voters noticed the glitch because of discrepancies on the printed records. The Pennsylvania Department of State has confirmed that this issue was isolated to Northampton County and did not affect any other races.
“Panella’s votes will be returned to Panella, and Stabile’s will be returned to Stabile,” McClure said. He downplayed the severity of the malfunction, referring to it as a “relatively minor glitch.”
The county has pointed to the voting machine vendor, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), as the source of the error. Katina Granger, a spokesperson for ES&S, attributed the mistake to human error and emphasized that it was an isolated incident, affecting only the judicial retention question in Northampton County.
