European elections: counting delays in Rome, recount needed in 78 sections

The computer system went haywire on the night of 9 June with election data entry operations concentrated at the Rome Fairgrounds and delays accumulated until the evening of Monday. Plus some eighty records 'with incongruent data' for which a judge will have to recount the votes. Monday 10 June was a complex day for the electoral machine in Rome, grappling with the registration of the results of the European elections. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, in the midst of the controversy, activated internal checks, spoke of a 'bug in the system' but did not rule out anything: neither an internal boycott nor inexperience. And he promised 'severity'.

The centre-right opposition, as well as ally and former Campidoglio tenant Ignazio Marino of Avs make fire and brimstone on the municipality: 'It is not possible that the capital, unique in Europe, finds itself in this situation,' the former mayor blurted out. 'I call for strong intervention by the competent authorities. "We have IT companies, we have departments," assured Councillor for Personnel Andrea Catarci, "We will investigate the chain of responsibility.

For now, the hand of the hacker has been ruled out, rather a defect in the 'new but already tested' system. What happened? The voting operations ended regularly last night at 11pm on 9 June, the councillor explained, and the data was then entered into the digital system, the one that has to transmit them to the Viminale. Only at some point during the night, after the first 800 sections out of 2,599, 'the system crashed'. A reboot was tried, two, three times: no results. While the technicians worked, it was decided to concentrate data entry operations at the Rome Fairgrounds, where another 100 digital workstations were activated in addition to the 60 already active, with an equal number of employees working on the reports. In the meantime, from 7 a.m., the system had slowly started working again. In the afternoon, the entry of the list votes was finally completed, but on the preferences, the delay accumulated during the night was discounted. In the evening, the transmission of preference votes was completed.

For 78 sections, however, Catarci said, 'manifestly inconsistent data' emerged. More votes than voters, for example, or minutes handed in blank. Information that cannot be entered into the system: 'They will be subject to recount by the judicial authority', i.e. a judge will decide how to count those sections. "The presence of minutes with aspects of inconsistency, and therefore closed to zero, has no connection with the computer bug that blocked the system on the night between Sunday and Monday, and which allowed the work to resume from the Rome Fair," Catarci added. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri is nevertheless furious: 'I have ordered internal audits and will be very strict,' he said in the evening. Some heads will roll.