Electronic voting machines in two Texas counties have an awkward habit of cutting off candidates' names if they are longer than 15 letters.
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The glitch occurs only on the last screen, where voters can double-check to make sure they cast their votes for those they want to win, the Austin American-Statesman reported. There, they must know that "Richard 'Kinky' F." is the singer and writer "Richard 'Kinky' Friedman," an independent gubernatorial candidate; "Carole Keeton St." is another independent candidate, "Carole Keeton Strayhorn"; and "Kay Bailey Hutch" is Texas' senior U.S. senator, whose last name is Hutchison.
To complicate matters further, the summary screen does not list party affiliation.
"I don't like it," said a frustrated Dana DeBeauvoir, county clerk in Travis County, which includes Austin. "We've been asking the vendor to address this issue for a couple of years now."
A vice president at Hart InterCivic, which makes the machines, said the problem is the letter size.