Another example is during the 1996 Republican Party Primary, where Pat Robertson was beating every other candidate in the early stages of the race, especially Bob Dole and Steve Forbes. Then when he rolled into Arizona with high hopes of another victory that would catapult him toward getting his party's nomination, something very strange happened. The computers broke down!
Yes, VNS had actually declared Buchanan the winner. Karen Johnson, Buchanan's Arizona State Coordinator, got a call from Governor Fife Symington congradulating her on what he called a "decisive" victory. Senator John Mccain also drafted a congradulatory letter, while all three networks and CNN said that Dole would definately finish third, while Forbes took second, and Buchanan won.
Then the computers mysteriously went down. When they came back up, guess what happened? Pat Buchanan ended up a distant third, while Bob Dole won!
When asked about this phenomenon, Buchanan joked about the computers (referring to the "fix" being in), when he said that "They seemed to work better after they brought 'em back!"