JOHNSTOWN - Malfunctions with new voting machines in five of Fulton County's towns caused by a server problem and human error, coupled with a civil action in Essex County affecting results from the 23rd Congressional District, mean no results are available yet from those towns for Tuesday's general election.

Democratic Deputy Board of Elections Commissioner Linda Coons said today the results on paper ballots from the five towns are in a locked room because machines were impounded. She said election officials cannot access those results - how many people voted and who they voted for - until the impound has been lifted.

Republican Deputy Board of Elections Commissioner Linda Madison informed the media and the public Tuesday night at the board's office on Route 29 that there was a computer-related problem that affected the towns of Bleecker, Broadalbin, Northampton, Oppenheim and part of Perth. She said new voting machines designed and programmed by the Sequoia-Dominion Co., which has a regional office in Rochester, had scanners that froze due to a programming glitch.

The software problem involving memory cards for the new machines affected results from the five towns in question, Madison said.

Elections officials said the problem resulted in a message of only "casting ballot" when ballots were scanned.

Democratic Election Commissioner John Schermerhorn said a show order cause legal action also was filed this week by Essex County Democratic Chairwoman Sue Montgomery-Corey in state Supreme Court in that county. That action was against various boards of elections in the counties of the 23rd Congressional District and the three candidates running for that seat - Democrat William L. Owens, Republican Dede Scozzafava and Conservative Douglas L. Hoffman.

Madison said the petition was signed by Supreme Court Justice Robert J. Muller that impounded all voting machines that malfunctioned in the district.

The Leader-Herald received a copy of the legal action, which stated in part: "The petition is made due to the fact that Essex, Clinton and Oneida counties utilize level voting machines, which cannot accommodate the different registration cut-off dates for general and special elections. As such, these machines cannot have multiple ballots and there is no way to mechanically restrict the offices a voter may cast a vote for.

"Therefore, those voters who are eligible only to vote in the special election for representative in Congress will have to vote by paper ballot," the petition said.