On Tuesday, Puerto Rico’s elections commission announced it is scrutinizing its contract with Dominion Voting Systems, a U.S. electronic voting company, due to numerous discrepancies found following the island's primaries.
According to Jessika Padilla Rivera, the commission’s interim president, the discrepancies arose from a software glitch in the Dominion machines that led to inaccurate vote tallies.
Although the primary results from June 2 are not being disputed, machine-reported counts were lower than the paper counts in some instances. Additionally, some machines either reversed totals or reported zero votes for certain candidates.
More than 6,000 Dominion voting machines were used in the Puerto Rican primaries. Dominion attributed the issues to the digital files used to export results from the machines.
José Varela, vice president of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives, has called for Padilla to testify at a public hearing on Thursday to address these concerns. Varela emphasized the importance of maintaining public confidence in the voting process as the general elections approach.
These issues are reminiscent of Puerto Rico’s troubled 2020 primaries, where a shortage of ballots at some polling stations forced the government to reschedule voting, an unprecedented move for the U.S. territory.
In the June 2 primaries, Puerto Rico selected gubernatorial candidates for both the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which favors the island’s current territorial status. Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s congressional representative, triumphed over Governor Pedro Pierluisi in the New Progressive Party primary. In the Popular Democratic Party primary, Representative Jesús Manuel Ortiz defeated Senator Juan Zaragoza.
Inaccurate results were shown on hundreds of ballots, as reported by both parties. The PNP identified over 700 errors and the PPD noted around 350 discrepancies. These issues affected ballots for various positions, including governor, mayor, and resident commissioner.
In response, the elections commission carried out a comprehensive vote tally and audited the paper receipts from hundreds of ballot-counting machines.
As Puerto Rico gears up for the November general election, where a new governor and local representatives will be chosen, ensuring the integrity of the voting process remains a critical concern.
