Machine malfunctions rarely get in the way of voting, Pennsylvania reports show
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Counties with traveling technicians can get problems at polling sites fixed quickly.
This story was originally published by Votebeat.
Pennsylvania voters encountered only scattered voting-machine malfunctions that rarely affected their ability to cast ballots in recent elections, according to a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis of problems reported to the state.
Counties reported a smattering of common problems with machines at polling places, such as paper jams and error messages. They typically got such issues fixed quickly by having technicians on call or simply replacing the machine.
For election officials, sending out a technician or staffer to a polling place is usually easier and more efficient than trying to walk a poll worker through a fix over the phone, said Forrest Lehman, election director in Lycoming County. Officials refer to these traveling helpers as rovers or roamers.
“Often you don’t know for sure what’s going on without sending someone out there,” Lehman said. His rovers are prepared with a “Swiss Army knife” of supplies to address any issue they may encounter, he said, and often the biggest delay is just the time it takes a rover to drive to the polling place.
Pennsylvania appears to be the only state to require counties to report voting system malfunctions after each election. The requirement is the result of an August 2023 legal settlement between the Department of State and a coalition of election security groups. Votebeat and Spotlight PA analyzed the reports for three elections since the requirement took effect: the November 2023 municipal election, the 2024 primary and the 2024 general election. The 2025 primary election reports haven’t yet been published.
The reports reviewed by Votebeat and Spotlight PA showed:
- The most common problems were ballots getting jammed in a machine, issues with scanning ballots, or the machine displaying some kind of error message.
- Many of the problems didn’t affect voters’ ability to cast ballots, because workers were often able to direct them to other available machines. Of those that did interfere with voting, the most common types of problems were scanning issues and jams.
- Across the three elections, a total of 1,673 voters were delayed or prevented from casting a ballot due to equipment malfunctions, which represents 0.014% of the votes cast in those elections.
See a compilation of the reports.
The most common resolution involved replacing equipment, but election officials also solved problems by resetting a machine or switching to a second machine for the rest of the day.
The quickest resolutions, those that took 30 minutes or less, typically involved having a trained county worker go to the polling place and fix the issue.
The state doesn’t require counties to have roving technicians, but Amy Gulli, a spokesperson for the Department of State, said most at least have extra staff at the election office who can be dispatched as needed.
Karen Barsoum, Chester County’s election director, said her county uses two separate teams of workers — one of traveling technicians and another of roaming staffers to solve issues that can’t be resolved by poll workers.
Barsoum said the roamers serve as liaisons between her office and the precincts, providing the poll workers with extra supplies or just an extra set of hands if needed.
The technicians are available for more serious issues. They have the county divided into 10 zones, with one traveling technician stationed in each zone on Election Day with tools to repair, clean, or replace malfunctioning equipment.
Barsoum said the new requirement to fill out the malfunction reports helped Chester County more clearly see how poll workers should handle issues when they arise. The county developed its own form for poll workers at each precinct to fill out when machines malfunction, which includes step-by-step instructions and an explicit reminder not to let the issue prevent or delay voting. She then uses those precinct-level sheets to fill out the state reports.
“Poll workers cannot say, ‘Oh the machine is down. Please come back later,’” she said. “Now that’s not an option. Now it’s in writing — this is what you do.”
The reports show that the most consequential issues are typically due to human error — often one that should have been discovered through pre-election machine testing.
Northampton County’s 2023 ballot tabulation issue, which made it appear as if votes were being changed to candidates not chosen by the voter, and Cambria County’s issue with ballot printing during the 2024 presidential election were both problems that could have been discovered and fixed through proper logic and accuracy testing. But the counties failed to catch those issues in time.
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
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