More than 100 per cent turnout? That's e-voting

Getting voters to the polls on a normal day isn't easy. But with the advent of e-voting in Orange County, California in elections last week, it looks like that's all changed. With the new electronic terminals, turnout was far higher than expected - more than 100 per cent in some districts.

Compared to the local average of about 37 per cent, it's an impressive figure - but it won't be bringing a smile to the faces of the Orange County officials.

According to the LA Times, it's human error, not technology, that's responsible. The e-voting system uses codes to assign a voter to a particular precinct. Some election workers had been mistakenly assigning voters to the wrong precinct - resulting in the higher than expected number of ballots in 21 voting precincts.

Some precincts also experienced an unnaturally low turnout - possibly because their votes had been counted in other districts.

It's unlikely that the votes will be recast or recounted following the polling foul-up. Apparently the winners' margins are wide enough to factor in the erroneous voting and still come up with the same results.

About 7,000 voters were affected by the e-voting problems, said the LA Times, but it's impossible to find out their names, due to the protections that are put in place to guarantee voters' anonymity.