The widespread breakdown of voting machines in Mercer County on Election Day was caused by a “miscommunication” between Dominion Voting Systems and the company that printed the ballots, according to Mercer County District Attorney Angelo Onafry.
Onofri launched an investigation into the malfunctioning voting machines at the request of Mercer County Clerk Paula Solami Covela. The problem was discovered at one polling place between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Nov. 8, causing a delay while Mercer County election officials tried to find a solution.
Onofri reported the results of the investigation by the Mercer County District Attorney’s Office to the Mercer County Board of Commissioners at its Nov. 21 meeting.
“My office determined that there was neither vote falsification nor criminal intent. There was a misunderstanding between Dominion Voting Systems and Royal Printing,” Onofri told county commissioners.
At its Nov. 10 meeting, the Mercer County Board of Elections attributed the failure of the voting machines to malfunctioning tabulators that scan voter ballots.
Dominion’s voting machines rejected the ballots, possibly because of a typographical error in the ballot that prevented the tabulators from “reading” the ballot, officials said.
The back-up plan was put in place by 9am. Officials decided to allow voters to vote with paper ballots and not to scan completed ballots on-site using whiteboards in voting machines.
Voters dropped their completed ballots into a sealed box, the contents of which were placed in special red bags and delivered to the Mercer County Board of Elections office on Spruce Street in Lawrence Township for hand counting.
Mercer County Board of Elections officials began counting ballots by hand after voting closed at 8 p.m. on Election Day and continued until 1 a.m. on Nov. 9, officials said. They resumed counting the ballots several hours later and completed the task late in the evening, officials said.
