State GOP overheated on voting machine failures?

The Republican Party of Minnesota criticized Secretary of State Mark Ritchie for “massive” voting machine failures across the state on Tuesday. But reporters around the state investigating the downed machines found the issue to be overheated rhetoric, not overheated machines.

The GOP contends that ballot scanning machines in eight precincts have malfunctioned. But according to MinnPost, the Associated Press told the party that they investigated three of the eight instances of broken machines and found that there were no ongoing problems in those three polling places.

And the Capitol Report, a blog of Forum Communications, dug even deeper. Among the problems at polling places were a power outage and an infant dropping a toy in a machine.

Capitol Report notes that in many of the several instances the machines were fixed after the first ballot was submitted.

“As you know from past experience, voting machines experience minor issues from time to time that do not disenfranchise voters but that require election judges and officials to take action,” Secretary of State Bert Black wrote to a Republican Party. “This is not new in the election process.”

Black said that all problems have been fixed.

Despite the seemingly low number of problems at Minnesota polling places on Tuesday, Fox News picked up the GOP’s story.