Voting Machine Mistake: Some St. Louis County Votes Weren't Counted

The failure of election workers to properly download tallies from five touch-screen voting machines at four polling places Tuesday caused 595 votes not to be counted.

However, St. Louis County Election Board officials told KSDK-TV that the incident did not impact any of the races. The station said the polling places that were affected include: Glendale Lutheran Church, Clayton Community Center, Ritenour Middle School and McKnight Church of Christ.

The news sparked interest from those involved with some of the closer races in St. Louis County, including the Kirkwood, Rockwood and Lindbergh school boards and the race for the Subdistrict 3 seat on the St. Louis Community College Board of Trustees.

Unofficial results were updated this afternoon. All of the votes from the affected polling places have been accounted for, according to election officials.

The following are the latest results from select races in which candidates have less than a 1-percent margin of victory.

Kirkwood School Board

• Andy Stewart, 3,401.
• Scott Anderson, 3,414.
• Sara King, 3,405.

Lindbergh School Board

• Kate Holloway, 2,460.
• George Rezabek, 2,445.

Rockwood School Board

• Sherri Rogers, 5,908.
• Jennifer Kelly, 5,796.

St. Louis Community College Board, Subdistrict Three

• Joan McGivney, 6,233.
• Bob Burns, 6,209.

St. Louis County Election Director Rita Heard Days told Patch that in the races where there is less than a 1-percent margin of victory, candidates may file a peition to request a recount. Election authorities do not automatically take action, according to Missouri Revised Statutes. 

The junior college unofficial results listed above reflect those in St. Louis County. In the St. Louis City election, the official results show that McGivney received 798 votes, and Burns had 716. 

Editor's Note: This article was updated at 10:30 a.m. Thursday to reflect the official St. Louis City election results in the SLCC race. Additionally, a previous version of this article stated that races are automatically recounted when there is less than a 1-percent margin of victory. However, votes are not automatically recounted; candidates must make a request. The article has been corrected. 

Webster Groves Patch Editor Sheri Gassaway contributed information to this article.