Hurst questions Springfield election commissioner about votes cast

Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola-Lopez answers questions about voter totals in the 2025 election.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen

SPRINGFIELD — City councilors had questions for Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola-Lopez and Deputy Commissioner Chelsea Parmentier about what appeared to be a discrepancy in the number of votes cast in the 2025 municipal election.

At Large City Councilor Justin Hurst, the chair of the General Government Subcommittee, began the April 21 meeting by explaining that, after the polls had closed on Nov. 4, 2025, the city’s election website reflected a voter total of 12,623 with 53 or 73 precincts reporting.

Later, he said, the website was updated to show a total of 13,100 ballots had been cast. He maintained that the 477 votes would have been enough to change the outcome of some of the close races.

Oyola-Lopez emphasized that all votes had been counted on election night. “The outcome on election night was the outcome after election night,” she said. She explained that the discrepancy that Hurst referred to was the result of a software error. While she was not made aware of it until the end of the night, she said the software had been showing that all precincts had reported their totals all night. When candidates and the media checked the results on the website later that night, it showed all votes were in. However, the results for precincts 2b, 8b and 8b1 had yet to be added to the tally.

“Results on the election website are not the certified election results,” Oyola-Lopez said. Election results from all municipalities are sent to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office for certification before becoming official. Parmentier added, “We don’t declare a winner on election night…there are still provisional ballots to count.”

Despite Oyola-Lopez clarifying that all votes had been counted, Hurst contended, “While it didn’t change the election results, it could have.” He asked her and Parmentier to walk the councilors through the process of tallying votes.

Parmentier explained that the results are stored on a flash drive in each voting machine. Once the polls close, the flash drive and a paper printout that has been signed by all the precinct’s election workers are removed by an election worker and a police officer, and physically transported to City Hall under security.

There, Oyola-Lopez plugs the flash drive into an air-gapped computer — one without an internet connection — and compares the electronic results to the printout, known as a tape, and confirms which precinct the results are from. The results from the precinct’s machines are tallied by the software. Oyola-Lopez assured the councilor that election personnel cannot see who voted for what, only the tallies.

Parmentier said that when there is a slow period, the results are entered into the city’s computer, which updates the website. Oyola-Lopez added that the website reflects a “screenshot” of the previous upload.

Turning back to the difference between voter totals, Hurst asked, “When did you realize the discrepancy?” Oyola-Lopez said the voter totals were changed on the website after the official results were confirmed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office. “I knew when I got the email,” she said. Parmentier said, “I found out from a social media site.”

Hurst said, “Nobody had accurate numbers.” He said he had never seen that situation before.

“Neither have I and I’ve been doing this for 24 years,” Oyola-Lopez responded.

Ward 7 City Councilor Gerry Martin asked the commissioner if the outstanding precincts were the last to be tallied. She confirmed that and said results are tallied in the order they are received.
Hurst noted that the number of voters from the three precincts equaled 460, 17 votes less than the 477-vote discrepancy. While Parmentier said there were between six and nine provisional ballots, Oyola-Lopez said she was “not comfortable” with not being able to account for the other eight to 11 ballots.

“Did you notify the public?” Hurst asked the commissioner. She did not.

City Council President Tracye Whitfield said it should be a “courtesy” to let the candidates know when there is an issue. Oyola-Lopez said it did not occur to her to notify the candidates because the race outcomes were not affected.

“That was a mistake on my part, for sure,” she admitted.

Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila said, “I don’t want people walking away from this meeting thinking there was any impropriety.” Oyola-Lopez assured him that if there had been the possibility that the results could have been different, she would have notified the candidates immediately.

Hurst pointed out that the official results came in after the 10-day window to request a recount and said several races were “very close.”

Oyola-Lopez agreed that the Election Commission needed to ensure the issue did not happen again. She said she had notified the city’s information technology department to make sure the computer error is fixed, and that her team has discussed the issue with the state. The Secretary of State’s office recommended that the results not be posted online until they are official. Because that can take weeks, she said she had decided against doing so. Instead, she said they may upload the results at regular intervals, so people are used to seeing the votes trickle in.

Oyola-Lopez said the Election Commission intends to add a text box to the website, alerting people to the unofficial nature of the results. Hurst added that the official results should be publicized.