On the eve of the televised Tucson Weekly/Access Tucson/Project White House Candidate Debate 08, The Tucson Weekly Blog has learned that an electronic glitch in the vote-counting software caused polls in the Tucson Weekly Readers’ Endorsement race to close an hour ahead of schedule.

The so-called DST Bug, which evidently failed to account for Arizona’s refusal to participate in Daylight Savings Time, shut down voting at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning instead of noon.

The precise impact is unknown, but millions of voters nationwide may have been disenfranchised by the malfunction.

The incident comes as communities across the nation are struggling with issues related to computer tabulation of votes.

The problem is compounded by the fact that two Democratic divisions ended in ties. Project White House Polling Central HQ is announcing a run-off election in both the Johnson Division and the Udall Division that will wrap up at noon Friday, Jan. 25.

In the Johnson Division, Leland Montell and Tish Haymer both captured 35 percent of the vote. Squeezed out of the race was Peter "Simon" Bollander, who captured just 30 percent.

In the Udall Division, Michael Oatman and Chuck See both captured 39.1 percent of the vote. Orion Karl Daley came in third with 21.7 percent.