Originally posted 4:21 p.m. Nov. 8, 2023

Updated 4:23 p.m. Nov. 9, 2023, with a comment from the president of Scytl, the company that owns the software criticized by Elections Superintendent Deb Cox.BY KASMIRA SMITH AND KEVIN C. HALL

VALDOSTA — Lowndes County elections officials said on Wednesday that a discrepancy in vote reporting in Tuesday’s election did not reflect an error in the vote counting.

“The votes were always good,” Elections Supervisor Deb Cox said.

She said the problem was with their presentation, which was handled by a third party.

Information from Lowndes County’s system is sent to Scytl, an electronic voting company, which posts them to a website. Cox said the state uses Scytl to post election results in even-numbered years (when state and national offices are up for election), so Lowndes County contracts with the same company in odd-numbered years for local elections so the presentation will be familiar to users.

On Tuesday, Cox said Scytl accurately reported vote totals, but its reporting of other data about the election was wrong.

In particular, the voter turnout displayed on Scytl’s site was several hundred less than the actual turnout.

It came to light as people realized the display showed more votes cast in the Valdosta mayoral election than the total overall turnout.

Scytl’s display was posted on two large screens at the Elections Office for observers to watch results come in and others were keeping up with results on their own devices. Media reporting on the election — some of which was done live — relied on the display for the information that was shared.

The discrepancy was discovered around 8:30 p.m. and appeared to have been rectified about an hour and 15 minutes later.

Part of the solution involved re-submitting the votes from Precinct 10, the Lowndes County Civic Center, to the Scytl system.

Cox said Lowndes County had a similar problem with Scytl two years ago, and she said she had words with representatives of the company Wednesday morning.

“I’m paying for it, I want it to be right,” she said.

Scytl President Jonathan Brill said the discrepancy was related to the data fields that are output by the county’s tabulation system.

“Elections officials upload the raw data and Scytl’s software organizes it for presentation based on data fields uploaded,” Brill said. “A lack of data fields can result in incorrect numbers being displayed on the website. However, the system worked correctly based on the available data. Scytl does not count votes but merely presents raw data as easily consumable information.”

By the end of the night Tuesday, all votes were counted except 16 provisional ballots. At the time, election officials didn’t know which municipality they were cast in.

Provisional ballots indicate a question about a voter’s right to cast the ballot — for instance, a question about whether they live in the precinct they’re trying to vote in.

They’re allowed to cast a ballot that’s not counted until the question is resolved over the next few days after the election.

On Thursday, the results posted online were in some cases slightly larger than those posted late Tuesday, possibly indicating the resolution of some of the provisionals.

Results must be certified by 5 p.m. Monday. They’re unofficial until then.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the unofficial vote totals were:

Dasher City Council, Post 4

Bradley Eyre: 37

Anita Armstrong Scott: 44

Hahira City Council, Post 2

Kenneth Davis: 104

Klay Luke: 107

Hahira City Council, Post 3

Terry Benjamin: 35

David Lindsey: 86

Hahira, sale of alcohol on Sunday

Yes: 276

No: 145

Remerton City Council (Vote for 2)

Steve Koffler: 14

Toney “Paco” Salcedo: 10

Bill Wetherington: 9

Valdosta Mayor

Fallon Harris: 127

Scott James Matheson: 2,650

J.D. Rice: 2,447

Valdosta City Council, District 1

Yurshema Flanders: 310

Vivian Miller-Cody: 452

Valdosta City Council, District 3

India Bell: 176

Thomas McIntyre: 347

Valdosta City Council, District 7 (at-large)

Nick “Big Nick” Harden: 2,384

Bill Love: 1,347

Alvin Payton Jr.: 992

Edgar “Nicky” Tooley: 296

If these numbers hold up through the certification process, Harden and Love will face one another in a runoff election for Valdosta’s District 7 seat. Harden received 47.50% of the vote to Love’s 26.84%, Payton’s 19.76% and Tooley’s 5.90%. Despite having the largest share of the vote, Harden did not receive the required 50% plus one vote to win outright.