Barry County Clerk Pam Palmer Tuesday reported to the Barry County Board on the delay on reporting results of the Nov. 6 election.

 

“Thing did not go as smoothly as we would have like them to go,” she said in understatement.

 

The good news is the integrity of the system is still in place; the print outs are accurate and the work by county clerk staff, township and city election workers was “flawless,” she said.

The pre-election tests were perfect, but on election night, some cards from precincts uploaded just fine, some uploaded partial information, some none at all, she said.

 

She  couldn’t call the problem just a programming glitch; "it was a failure."

Palmer, IT Director David Shinavier and Chief Clerk Karen Barnes spent Tuesday night and into Wednesday inputting results manually.

 

The system’s programmer, with Governmental Business Systems, got a call late Tuesday night. “He’s still scratching his head,” searching for answers, and has been working on it since then. “There is no good clear answer to what went wrong and when,” Palmer said.

 

The Board of Canvassers is expected to certify the election later today.

“We’re almost done to where we should have been...I just hope this never, ever happens again, to any clerk.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Barry County Clerk Pam Palmer speaking to county commissioners.