Machine glitch leads to ‘emergency’ recount of primary election results

As a result of some technical glitches with voting machines, a hand recount of the county’s Primary Election ballots took place on June 10.
At a special emergency meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors June 9, discussions were held on holding an administrative recount of the ballots, due to the scheduled election canvass on June 15. County Auditor Stephanie Burke explained that the error occurred at infrequent intervals when the ballots were fed into the voting machines.
“Some of the precincts were inserting ballots, and in some instances, the number on the Unysin voting machine’s tabulator would increase by an extra vote. At the end of the night, the precinct officials counted the ballots to the declaration of eligibility slips that were signed by eligible voters when they come in to vote, and those matched, but the tabulators were showing a different number. Nobody knows if if the issue was just a reader error, or if it actually counted some of the ballots twice.”
Burke said her recommendation, as well as the recommendation of the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, was to conduct an administrative recount in precincts one, two, three, six, and seven. The administrative recount could be requested by the auditor when the auditor suspected voting equipment in the election malfunctioned.
Burke added that the potential number of incorrect votes was minimal between the five specified precincts.
“After a complete tally of each precinct, it was noted that Precinct One was off by one vote. Precinct Two was also off by one vote. Both those precincts were at the Gold Fair Building. Precinct Three, which was at the First Christian Church in Red Oak, was off by three votes. Precinct Six in Stanton was off by one vote, and Precinct Seven in Villisca was off by one vote,” explained Burke.
Additionally, Burke made it clear that the county maintained the highest professional standards to ensure the integrity of the election process, and all the voting machines were pre-tested, and publicly-tested, prior to the election, and at those times, there were no inaccuracies.
For the recount, Burke and the absentee ballot team used two machines, opened each ballot, and hand counted each vote before feeding the ballots into the machine.  The votes will be manually placed into each machine, and the tabulated results from the machine will be compared to the numbers hand counted by the poll workers. Burke added there would be no major changes to the unofficial results posted June 7.
“We did not have any close races, so this will not affect any of the race outcomes. We simply want to be transparent, and I felt this was the best way, and that’s why I’m recommending the administrative recount to make sure the results are 100% accurate,” Burke advised.
According to Burke, she and other auditors affected by the voting machine glitch were sent a letter from Unysin officials apologizing for the error, and the letter stated that work was underway to prevent the same issue from happening again in November during the general election.
The voting machine issue was not limited to Montgomery County. Burke said she was also aware of issues being reported in Page, Cass, and Mills County.
The supervisors approved Burke’s request for an administrative recount of the county’s ballots.
Around 1,081 ballots were counted from the 7,365 total voters in Montgomery County in the latest primary, and with the limited number of potentially double-counted votes from the voting machine errors, Burke said the numbers indicated a voter turnout of roughly 14.68% Burke stated those numbers were in line with past years.
“Based on what I’ve seen in the past, I’d say it’s pretty normal and right on target for what we saw with the last gubernatorial election in 2018,” Burke said.
Additionally, Burke said the turnouts in Montgomery County were similar to turnouts statewide, and many of the races were uncontested.
“In Montgomery County, the only race that was contested for District Four Supervisor. If there had been more contested races, I think we’d see a lot more voter turnout,” commented Burke.
In that contested race, incumbent Mark Peterson was challenged for the Republican nomination by George Bruce. In the end, it was Peterson securing the nomination with 181 votes to Bruce's 49 votes. Peterson said he was pleased with the results.
“Hopefully what contributed to my win was my experience. Even before I became a supervisor, I attended a number of meetings so I could kind of hit the ground running. Now I’m in my eighth year, and I hope my results have spoken for a job well done,” Peterson said.
This is only the second time Peterson has been contested in the race. There were three candidates on the ballot when he first sought the seat, and when he sought his second term, he was uncontested for the nomination.
Now that the results of the primary have been revealed, Peterson said he plans to keep doing what he’s been doing since he took the position.
“It’ll be business as normal, and I’ll be continuing to try to do the right thing for the county,” stated Peterson.
District Two Supervisor Mike Olson was uncontested for the Republican nomination and received 104 votes. There were no write-ins.
Also uncontested was District One Supervisor Charla Schmid, who was also seeking the republican nomination. Schmid received 99 votes, and there were two write-ins.
In other uncontested county races, Carleen Bruning earned 764 votes to secure the Republican nomination for County Recorder. There were six write-ins.
Also, Drew Swanson secured the Republican nomination in his uncontested race for County Attorney, receiving 717 votes. There were 14 write-ins.
The last local race was Jackie Porter, seeking the Republican nomination for County Treasurer. Porter received 751 votes, and there were four write-ins.