Hall County elections officials are in the process of notifying candidates from the May 22 primary that there was a printing error on a results tape at one voting precinct in the county.
The action was prompted by two candidates who inquired about the problem on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Dr. Tom Smiley, the Chairman of the Hall County Elections Board, said in a telephone interview the voting equipment itself never malfunctioned, but the printer that generated the results tape did.
"July 9 and 10 we received inquiries from a couple of candidates regarding the DRE machines - the voting machines - and some tapes that were posted at one of our precincts. The particular tape that was posted had some incomplete information printed on it and that caused some concern."
Smiley confirmed information in a press release issued Friday afternoon by Hall County Elections Director Lori Wurtz saying that results tapes are printed in triplicate at each precinct at the close of the election. One copy is placed on the door of the precinct, one copy goes to the Clerk of Court and the other remains with the Elections Board. In this instance, the copy placed on the door at Hopewell Baptist Church - the Candler precinct - printed incorrectly.
"Because of that printing error some names and some races were not listed on that particular tape," Smiley said. "The other two tapes that were printed at the same time were full,complete and 100-percent accurate. It was simply a printing error on that one tape."
Smiley said names of candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties were omitted from the erroneous copy.
Wurtz' press release indicated that the Secretary of State's Office was contacted as soon as the local office was made aware of the issue this week. The press statement said the state has seen similar issues with other printing functions on voting equipment.
"We were in touch with the Secretary of State's Office and they did confirm with us by telephone that we were 100-percent accurate in our assumptions of the printing error, but out of a desire that I do that all I can possibly do, I am requesting that they look into it if they so desire," Smiley said.
Smiley said all candidates whose names were part of the May 22 primary ballot will receive a copy of the internal findings from the Elections Board review of the error.
