Troubles with electronic voting machines in a key county of an important swing state have many voters and officials worried about the reliability of the coming 2024 elections.<\/p>\n
According to reports, voters in Northampton County in Pennsylvania have now experienced at least two elections when voting machines<\/a> glitched on them, and many are calling for answers ahead of the contentious 2024 elections.<\/p>\n The machines reportedly glitched with fraudulent<\/a> votes in a 2019 race for judge in the county, and while that experience did not become a big deal for many, the problem cropped up again this year. Now, with two glitches in only a few years, county officials are scrambling to reassure voters that the machines are still secure and reliable, Politico<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at the peak of mistrust of one another, but until that subsides, counties like ours need to be nearly perfect, and I think this system allows us to do that,\u201d County Executive Lamont McClure stated.<\/p>\n For his part, Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania\u2019s secretary of state, attempted to pivot on the machine glitches to claim that the detractors are the problem, not the machines.<\/p>\n \u201cThe broader concern is that an incident like this would be misused to undermine confidence in our electoral process,\u201d Schmidt told Politico.<\/p>\n Politico went on to note that the 2019 election was the first year Northampton County rolled out the touchscreen machines<\/a> made by Election Systems & Software. The rollout, though, was troubled when votes for a Democratic candidate for judge were seriously undercounted.<\/p>\n There were also problems in a local election for judges in Nov. 7 of this year when voters reported that the paper printout of their votes did not match what they chose on the touchscreen machine. Apparently, the machines switched some votes to a different candidate on the paper printout of the ballot.<\/p>\n Despite these problems, McClure claimed that there are more than enough safeguards built into the machines.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve learned through \u201819 and \u201823 is that the machines that we have have a great deal of redundancy built in,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n Despite McClure\u2019s assurances, though, voters, poll workers, and election security watchers said that the problems seen now in two recent elections had caused a lot of confusion on Nov. 7 and the issue has undermined trust residents of Northampton County have in the Election Systems & Software systems.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 2019, the theory has been well, that was a big mistake, but we caught it and we\u2019ve implemented new processes to make sure nothing like that would ever happen again,\u201d said the chair of the Northampton County Democratic Party, Matthew Munsey.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how we can restore trust with these machines,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n McClure countered the concerns with his claim that the vote switching was an error programmed into the machines by an ES&S employee when testing the machines<\/a> ahead of the election.<\/p>\n But voters say that when the glitch in 2019 occurred \u2014 which county officials also claimed was an \u201cemployee error\u201d \u2014 they were told not to worry about it because the paper ballots were recording the real vote when the touchscreen seemed to show something different. But this year, the issue was the mirror reverse of the 2019 problem, yet they are still being told not to worry about it.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2019, when the issues came up with the touchscreens, we were told, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about it. The cards are recording the votes,’\u201d said Northampton County Republican Committee Chair Glenn Geissinger. \u201cOK, you\u2019re telling me now, in 2023, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about what\u2019s printed on the card?’\u201d<\/p>\n County officials also tried to ally fears by noting that the problem was quickly discovered and resolved, so the issue was isolated and had no chance to affect the outcome of the election. But distrust of the machines abounds.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were saying, \u2018Don\u2019t trust the thing that\u2019s supposed to validate your ballot,’\u201d Northampton poll worker John Walker told Politico. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t instill confidence in the system at a time when it has never been more important to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Calls for change are also being issued by political parties, elected officials, and activist groups. Democrat and Republican officials are calling for the county to dump the machines<\/a> and other groups are calling for a more thorough backup system to be devised and implemented before the 2024 elections.<\/p>\n Yet McClure and other officials insist there is nothing seriously wrong with the machines or their backup procedures. And Schmidt has waived off the issues in Northampton, saying, \u201cNo voting system is immune to human error.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, many are not mollified by the assurances of state and county officials. Kevin Skoglund, president and chief technologist of Citizens for Better Elections, had a typical reaction by finding the whole situation to be exasperating. \u201cOur concerns kept getting dismissed by people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Key Swing County Sounding Alarm Bells on Voting Machines Ahead of 2024 Election<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Troubles with electronic voting machines in a key county of an important swing state have many voters and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n