Board of Elections officials work out kinks on website

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The state is trying to figure out what went wrong with its new elections software in Tuesday's primary.

Numbers on the website made some think the election was over when most of the votes were not yet counted.
 
Anchor Scott Wickersham spoke to the director of Mecklenburg County's Board of Elections Wednesday.
 
Very few votes were counted by 8 p.m. Tuesday.  Polls closed at 7:30 p.m., but the North Carolina Board of Elections' new software mistakenly showed that almost all precincts were in by 8, leading people to think the vote counts they saw were the final tally.

Not long after polls closed, Mecklenburg Board of Elections Director Michael Dickerson saw a huge red flag.
 
Dickerson said "188 of 195 precincts were reporting in before 8 o'clock. That would have been a record for the county. That has never happened in the history of Mecklenburg County."
 
County results were coming from the state Board of Elections, which keeps the running tally.
 
The state board is using new software and doing it in house, instead of paying a third party.
 
This primary was the trial run and the county elections board said it improperly displayed the number of precincts reporting on its website.
 
"We regret that initial display errors caused frustration for our voters and our county board of elections," Dickerson said. "Our dedicated staff worked throughout the evening to resolve these issues."
                               
Dickerson said his staff got calls Tuesday night from reporters and candidates confused by the mistake.
 
It took until after 11 p.m. for the state to make it accurate.
 
Channel 9 asked if the incorrect precinct numbers mean the vote count was wrong.
 
"Oh, the votes are completely accurate," Dickerson said. 
 
Dickerson said the new system also took too long to post absentee ballots and early votes, which are basically added as soon as the polls close.
 
He's confident all the kinks will be worked out by the November election.

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