Ballots still uncounted in 4 St. Lawrence districts

CANTON — St. Lawrence County election officials can't determine what went wrong Tuesday with voting machines in eight districts until a court impoundment order is lifted.

Election results won't be available until then from those districts or from one of two districts in the town of Fowler, where results were inadvertently combined.

Problems with machines were reported early from Rossie, Edwards and Clare.

"The machines were frozen," Democratic Election Commissioner Jennie H. Morrill said. "Ballots were put in emergency lock boxes."

Inspectors didn't report problems in Colton, Lawrence, and two districts in Massena until inspectors tried closing the polls with an electronic key and the machines froze rather than print results.

"It's nothing the inspectors did wrong," Ms. Morrill said. "I can't open the machines so I don't know what happened."

The county switched from lever machines to electronic versions to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act. Voters mark a paper ballot which is fed into a scanner.

Fulton County, which is partly in the 23rd Congressional District, also reported problems with machines in 11 districts. Inspectors there switched to paper ballots. Lewis County reported issues with three machines.

A total of 24 voting districts did not report results, including some in Oswego, Madison and Oneida counties.

Election inspectors in St. Lawrence County were fully trained on the equipment, Ms. Morrill said.

"Obviously, this year, the training was different because it was new," Ms. Morrill said. "The inspectors did a fabulous job."