Politics

Rise Of The Machines: Vote For Republicans In Chicago Automatically Changed To Democrats

Derek Hunter Contributor
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Jim Moynihan, Republican candidate for the Illinois State House, went in Wednesday to vote early, and to vote for himself. But when he touched the screen mark his name, it was his Democratic opponent’s name that registered the vote.

“While early voting at the Schaumburg Public Library today, I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” Moynihan told Illinois Review. “You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat.”

Every time he touched the screen for a Republican the machine registered it as a vote for the Democrat. “Clearly, I am concerned that citizens will be unable to vote for the candidate of their choice, especially if they are in a hurry and do not double check their ballot,” Moynihan said.

He notified the election officials and demonstrated the problem for them. He was eventually able to vote for himself and other Republicans.

Jim Scalzitti, Cook County Clerk’s Office Deputy Communications Director, told Watchdog Illinois, “This was a calibration error of the touch-screen on the machine. When Mr. Moynihan used the touch-screen, it improperly assigned his votes due to improper calibration.”

Scalzitti reiterated that the votes were not counted, they did not register and encouraged every voter to double-check their ballot before hitting submit.