Spider in voting machine entangles Massachusetts town election
A Japanese researcher has spun enough spider silk to string a violin.
An itsy bitsy spider is to blame for jamming up a voting machine in Massachusetts on Election Day.
Rehoboth Town Clerk Kathleen Conti called a technician after one of the town's aging voting machines malfunctioned during Tuesday's election, The Associated Press reported.
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The machine stopped recognizing ballots, which threatened to delay voting results.
Staff counted more than 800 votes by hand until the technician arrived and discovered that the eight-legged culprit's web had blocked a sensor in the machine, according to the Boston Globe.
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"It was something as simple as that," Conti told the Globe. "We were cursing that spider. He’s still at large and we’re still looking for him."
The spider must have only recently done his damage.
Staff checked out the 14-year-old machine about a month before the election and again on Oct. 30, and no problems were found, Conti told the Globe.
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