Voting machine again displays wrong choice

GREENSBORO — Another Guilford County voter has reported having problems casting a vote for a U.S. Senate candidate.

Percy Bostick, 69, of Greensboro said he tried casting a vote for Democrat Kay Hagan at the Old Guilford County Courthouse, only to have the machine register Republican Thom Tillis as his choice.

“I called one of the poll workers over,” Bostick said. “She said do it again. And again, I touched the screen at the proper place for Kay Hagan, and it again reported it for Thom Tillis.”

On his fourth attempt, the machine registered the vote for Hagan. Another poll worker decided to cancel the ballot altogether and directed Bostick to an adjacent machine, where he was able to cast his ballot without any issues.

The problematic machine was taken out of service

On Wednesday, another voter had reported a similar problem at the Craft Recreation Center. In that case, the voter also tried selecting Hagan but saw the machine had recorded him as choosing Tillis.

He also was moved to another machine, which registered his selections without any problem.

Charlie Collicutt, Guilford County elections director, said his office has received 14 reports of voting problems since early voting started Oct. 23, including seven from people who became concerned after they got home.