The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) admitted Wednesday that two Dominion Voting Systems machines in Oshkosh and Lac Du Flambeau accidentally marked creases in ballots as votes. This resulted in a small handful of "overvotes" that did not impact the races in which the mistakes were made.
"In the City of Oshkosh, Ward 23A, auditors discovered a 21-vote discrepancy between the equipment results and the audit results for the District 18 State Senate contest," said WEC staff member Robert Williams during Wednesday's meeting. "The audit results showed an increase of 12 votes for [Democratic] candidate [Aaron] Wojciechowski and nine votes for [Republican] candidate [Dan] Feyen vs. the equipment results. The increase in candidate votes was directly proportional to the decrease that they saw in overvote totals also seen, which led auditors to believe the crease folds through the write-in fields triggered overvotes."
A nearly identical issue led to five overvotes in the Town of Lac Du Flambeau in the State Assembly District 74 race between Democratic incumbent Beth Meyers and Republican challenger James Bolen.
"A review of ballot images showed that five ballots running through the write-in box that was subsequently overridden instead of being remade," Williams explained.
There is no suggestion that anything nefarious was at play in either of these races, but it is clear that a closer examination of voting machines is needed to ensure that the crease issue is not causing erroneous overvotes across the state. WEC commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican appointee, requested a full statewide audit of all Dominion Voting Systems machines but was denied. Instead, the Commission voted unanimously to examine a small number of additional machines to determine whether the problem was widespread and, if it is determined to be, conduct a full audit later this year.
Dan O'Donnell discussed this issue in-depth during Thursday's opening monologue. Click on the player below to listen and click here to subscribe to "The Dan O'Donnell Show" on iHeartRadio