U.S Elections 2012: Voting machine alters votes for Obama to Romney (VIDEO)

An electronic voting machine in Pennsylvania has been removed from service after it changed votes for President Obama into those for Mitt Romney.

An 18-second clip posted onto YouTube shows a voter's finger repeatedly pressing the button for Obama, but the check mark instead comes up next to Romney's name.

This is the latest in a flurry of voting glitches across the country today from West Palm Beach in Florida where ballot counting machines broke down, to vast swathes of New Jersey where text alert systems for residents sent them to the wrong polling stations.

In comments attached to the clip, the anonymous user named 'centralpavote' said that 'all the other buttons worked fine' and asked voters either side if they were experiencing similar problems - which they denied. 

video after the break
The video which was filmed on the YouTube users Android phone shows the potentially serious malfunction affect only a vote for the incumbent president.

A vote for any other of the candidates for the presidency and vice presidency resulted in a successful choice - it was only a vote for President Obama that caused the machine to change to Mitt Romney.

'I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted,' said 'centralpavote' on the introduction to his video on YouTube.

'I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney.

'Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode.

'I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine.

'Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’.

'From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney.

'From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama.

'Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.'

The voter reported the problem to an electoral official who declared it a non issue.

'I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it,' said 'centralpavote'/

'She him hawed (sic) for a bit then calmly said 'It’s nothing to worry about, everything will be OK.' and went back to what she was doing.

'I then recorded this video.'