Broken Computer Forces Ballots Across County Line

Washington County, Indiana, relies on a single paper ballot system. On the night of the recent general election, the computer used to scan those ballots failed to boot. The county clerk’s office had one machine dedicated to reading the thumb drives from precincts. That system stopped working after polls closed.

Clerk Stephanie Rockey said the system had been tested successfully two months prior. A representative from the vendor was present at the clerk’s office. They performed three hard reboots on the machine. None of the restarts fixed the issue. At that point, it had been more than an hour since voters stopped casting ballots.

Rockey described the situation as a logistical challenge rather than a procedural one. She noted that the county is entirely paper-based. Her primary fear as an administrator is running out of ballots, not a software glitch. She had never expected the system to fail to start.

Elections officials gave Rockey two paths forward. She could wait for a replacement computer to be shipped from Lexington, Kentucky, the following day. Alternatively, she could transport the physical ballots to a neighboring county. That county uses the same software system. Rockey chose the second option. She left with over 8,000 ballots and rode to Harrison County with a sheriff’s deputy.

The transfer was monitored by a bipartisan election board and multiple officials. The third-party vendor representative entered the data at the new location. Rockey said this structure made manipulation nearly impossible. She explained that the team does not have the time or manpower to spot trends and adjust numbers. She described the process as having too many eyes on it to allow for changes.

"For us, as clerks, it’s not about the party, it’s about the process," Rockey said. "There’s too many hands in the fire and too many eyes on it to even manipulate anything or change it. So it’s near impossible. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen anyplace else, but it’s not going to happen here in Washington County."

The Indiana Secretary of State’s Elections Division received a full report the next day. The division praised the county for securing results that night. Washington County will participate in a voluntary audit of its results in December. Rockey signed up for that audit in May. The Indiana Secretary of State did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.