Voting machine company warns of program flaw

The company that makes Georgia’s electronic voting machines has warned state election officials of a programming flaw that tossed out 1,000 votes in Ohio, which uses the same equipment.

Texas-based, Premier Election Solutions Inc., recently warned election officials in Georgia and 33 other states that rely on its equipment to tally election results, about the potential problem, said Matt Carrothers, a spokesman with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The company is a subsidiary of Diebold Inc., of Ohio.

“There’s no issue here,” said Carrothers. “No problems have been reported to our election division.”

The Associated Press reported that the Ohio machines have dropped at least 1,000 votes in elections held in that state since 2006. However, in each of those elections, the malfunction was repaired within hours of its discovery, according to company officials.

Premier officials said the problem resulted from the uploading of multiple memory cards into the machines at the same time.