Technical issues caused Oklahoma election result delays

OKLAHOMA CITY – A bogus security alert in one county and a failed hard drive in another county delayed the reporting of the Nov. 3 election results, said State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax.

Ziriax said the two issues did not affect the counting of the votes or the validity of the vote count of the midterm election results.

A security alert in Cleveland County triggered security protocols that temporarily prevented the county from transmitting its results to the state, he said.

Officials were able to use an alternative method to process the file that triggered the alert and the results were posted to the state website shortly after 10 p.m., he said.

In Comanche County, a hard drive failure caused the delay and required manual entry, he said.

“Even with these technical issues and delays, Oklahoma still fully reported our unofficial election results statewide more quickly than most states around the country,” Ziriax said.

Officials do not like that the delays occurred, Ziriax said.

But he said he was proud of how the county and state staff did what was necessary to make the results available in a timely manner.