Missing cartridges slow Washoe County results

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- By early today, Washoe County had not completed counting ballots from Tuesday's election because of missing computer cartridges that still hold votes, officials said.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said Washoe County discovered that 50 cartridges were missing about 11 p.m. Tuesday. Some of them had been dropped off at the county's computer center and were later discovered in bags.

By 1 a.m. today, about 25 of the 50 units had been found. This morning Heller said they have not yet been tallied. He said Washoe County Voter Registrar Dan Burk was still trying to locate the other cartridges as of 10:15 a.m.

It's unclear how many votes are contained on the cartridges.

Heller said some of the cartridges may have been left in the voting machines by election workers and were locked up in the buildings where they were used. He said some of the units may be at Incline Village at Lake Tahoe.

Part of the problem, Heller said, was Washoe County did not have an audit process. When election workers brought in their equipment, there was no check off to determine that all of the cartridges were delivered for counting.

He said Clark County has an audit process to account for all the items.