PROVO — Utah County commissioners, charged with canvassing and certifying the Nov. 2 general election results, are furious at a computer-programing mix-up that led to an under-count of 33,000 votes.

At a Monday meeting where they examined the stacks of cast ballots, the county's top officials sternly issued this order to staff: Don't let it happen again.

"I can't correct it as a commissioner or as a canvasser," said Commissioner Jerry Grover. "I just don't want to have it happen again."

"We want a seamless arrangement between the computers and the county clerk," Commissioner Steve White said. "Thirty-three thousand voters not voting for president? I don't think so."

Neil Peterson, the county's information systems director, says the 33,000 votes were never really lost As a result of a programming error, he says, the straight-party ballots were not sorted and allocated to the partisan races.

The new tally — with the 33,000 votes — didn't change the outcome of any races, according to official numbers released Monday.

But White said such an error could have ramifications down the line, particularly when it comes to district apportionment and the number of delegates assigned to Utah Valley areas.

Utah County Republican Party Chairwoman Marian Monnahan said her group worries the tabulation will affect the delegate count. Delegates from local precincts choose candidates for the party at the state convention.

"The delegates are allocated based on the percentage that were cast for certain contested state offices. Correct tabulation for both the county total and individual precincts is important for both the number of delegates to the state convention and how those are allocated to the individual precincts within the county," Monnahan told The Deseret Morning News Monday.

Peterson said the sorting problem didn't show up in pre-election certification tests — but he and his staff knew there was a problem on election night.

"It looked wrong from the get-go," Peterson said. "We were concerned. It was a simple set-up error, but hard to discover."

Peterson said two new tests have been added to make sure such an error doesn't go undetected again.

Grover said this is the second time there's been a significant problem in vote-counting in Utah County. "I've been in office 10 years and it's happened twice," he said.

Ultimately, Utah County Clerk-Auditor Kim Jackson is held accountable for the vote count. But Jackson says there are only two full-time election office employees.

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