Northampton County voters may cast ballots under a dark cloud at next April’s primaries if the current voting machines are still in use.

After Thursday’s vote of “no confidence” in the new machines by the county’s Election Commission, the electoral process in the important upcoming presidential year could be marked by more chaos and confusion.

The four-member commission voted unanimously with members saying that they were not persuaded by the assurances given earlier this month at a news conference by Adam Carbullido, senior vice president of Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Nebraska.

The firm won the nearly $2.9 million contract to supply the machines to satisfy a mandate by Gov. Tom Wolf that machines with a paper trail needed to be in place by the end of 2019.

Joining Carbullido in apologizing to voters for issues in the Nov. 5 General Election, County Executive Lamont McClure characterized the problem as an “unfortunate error” but also added, “we are glad to have it resolved,” and he pledged to hold ES&S accountable.

The problems were caused by the misalignment of instructional texts on the ballots for the judicial and school board races, which caused votes to be credited to different lines. There are other problems that need addressing, too.

The election commission does not have the authority to authorize the purchase of new machines on its own. That must be done in collaboration with County Council and McClure. With just about four months until the April 28 primaries, it seems logistically impossible to make such a significant change in such a short time frame.

Some county council members want a refund from ES&S. On top of that, there is still discontent among county party leaders over the reliability of the machines and what impact this will have in voter confidence next year.

There were problems elsewhere in the state with the company’s voting machines, leading to a lawsuit being filed by two election security advocacy organizations and 13 registered voters from Northampton and Philadelphia counties.

The suit asks Commonwealth Court to block the state’s certification of these voting machines. Gov. Wolf’s office has until January to respond.

ES&S has been in hot water with voting jurisdictions in other states, too. There were issues with the machines in Georgia and Indiana in 2018, according to an investigation done by Pro Publica, an independent online news service. Despite these issues, ES&S controls about 50% of the voting machine market in the U.S., meaning that nearly 70 million Americans vote on its machines.