Akron student captures voting booth problem on his iPhone

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio - Ian Sanderson is an University of Akron freshman, who was genuinely excited to cast his ballot during the November election.  

Sanderson traveled to John Knox Church in Jackson Township, where he was greeted by four poll workers, who were on the scene. Ian said running through the ballot was going smoothly until he tried to cast his vote for Democrat John Boccieri, in the 16th District Congressional race.

"Everytime I hit the Boccieri button on the touch screen, it activated the button for Boccieri's opponent listed above his name on the ballot," Sanderson said.  "I couldn't believe this was happening, so I decided to record the incident on my iPhone."

Sanderson said he was unable to vote for Boccieri, so he reported the problem to a poll worker. Sanderson said the poll worker was already aware of the problem, but claims the voting booth was not immediately shut down.

"I decided to post video of my voting experience on YouTube," Sanderson said. "I just thought more people should know that these voting machines can go bad." 

5 On Your Side contacted Stark County Board of Elections Executive Director Jeanette Mullane about the incident, and she responded immediately.  Mullane was aware of the problem, and had her technical staff run tests on the voting machine used by Sanderson.

Mullane confirmed the problem was caused by incorrect calibration on the voting machine touch screen, an issue that has now been repaired.

"I will be talking with all four poll worker assigned to John Knox Church," Mullane said. "I want to determine if poll worker response to this problem was appropriate in this case."

Mullane said tests were conducted on other voting machines, but confirmed the incident involved just one unit, and was an isolated incident.

"We haven't recieved complaints from any other voters about this problem," Mullane said.

The uncut YouTube video posted by Sanderson can be found here: