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Calibration Error Displays GOP Vote To Dems

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- When a Republican candidate for state representative went to cast a vote for himself on Monday, he noticed something very odd.

The machine mistakenly showed his votes for Democrats, due to to a problem with the sensitivity of a touch screen, bringing a modern twist to Illinois storied past of alleged vote-fixing.

However, in this case, where there was smoke, there really was no fire.

In this case, all turned out well for Jim Moynihan, who is running for State Representative in the 56th District.

Moynihan alerted an election judge and was allowed to cast a correct ballot on the first day of early voting in Illinois.

"He did what he is supposed to do by contacting the election judge," said Cook County Clerk spokeswoman Courtney Greve.

The machine was taken out of service and Moynihan's initial Democratic votes were never registered.

The issue is hardly widespread, with only 5 out 35,000 voters in suburban Cook County so far experiencing any issue, Greve said.

The glitch is now getting national attention.

On Thursday morning, the Drudge Report was leading with the story with the delicous headline: "Cooked County: Republican Vote Marked Dem."

On his Facebook page, Moynihan wrote: "Problems with voting machines are an issue everywhere, not just where I voted. It's important to double-check all of your choices when placing your vote to make sure the machine is actually working the way that it is supposed to work. Your vote is too important to allow it to be taken away because a machine isn't calibrated."

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