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Voting Machines in One Pennsylvania County Inadvertently Flip Ballot Responses

Officials blamed the situation on a coding error and said the votes will be tallied as they were intended.

Voting machines in one Pennsylvania county inadvertently flipped voters’ responses to a ballot question about retaining state judges, officials said—though they insisted that the error would be easily fixed and everyone’s votes would be counted as intended. They blamed the issue on a coding error, according to the Associated Press. The question about whether Pennsylvania Superior Court Judges Jack Panella and Victor Stabile should get additional 10-year terms reportedly switched “yes” and “no” votes for each judge. Every machine in the county was affected, but only the question about the judges had a malfunction. Officials say the votes will be tallied as they were intended when votes are counted and added that Election Systems & Software, the company that manufactured the machines, took ownership for the mistake.