After bringing up 3 tutorial boards, ti seems that none of the digital inputs really work. The pot input seems to be fine however, so this document will outline my debugging of the issue with the buttons.
The Buttons
They're pretty crappy. Probing across the terminals to check for continuity when the button is closed sometimes is a weak signal depending on how you press the button. Sometimes I need to try pressing the buttons multiple times in different directions before I get the continuity. For the future, use different buttons. Some of the buttons are kind of messed up and must be replaced.
Schmitt Triggers
Another point of interest is the assembly of these ICs. Some of the pins are slightly lifted, and I am looking to jumper the button input past this component since it should work with or without it.
Shorts
During assembly, there existed many shorts on the connector for the microcontroller. I was unable to find any on the pins shorted on the micro while debugging, but it should be looked into once again if short-like problems still persist