Voting problems fixed, day smooth, say Jefferson County vote officials
The problems ranged from a statewide computer shutdown to new poll workers not being fully accustomed to the new voting machines, but election officials said the hiccups, which caused brief delays, were dealt with quickly and for the most part, voting on Tuesday went smoothly.
“The voting machines statewide got programmed to where they would allow you to go through without selecting a ballot style,” said Michael Adam, chairman of the Jefferson County Election Commission, adding that, because of the error, some people voted on an incorrect ballot.
Jefferson County Clerk Shawndra Taggart announced last week that only one out of the three ballots, Democratic, Republican or nonpartisan, could be selected, and sample ballots were online for the election at www.voterview.ar-nova.org/voterview.
Adam said he had several candidates calling him informing him the polling books weren’t allowing a ballot style to be selected. To help correct the problem, he said he made a public service announcement on the radio to inform voters to ask for the ballot style they wanted.
“That seemed to solve the problem,” said Adam, who added that there are new poll workers operating new equipment this year.
Other problems occurred when a mandatory update to the voting machines in at least two polling places, including Trinity Lutheran Church, resulted in voters being turned away from casting their vote.
City Council Member Ivan Whitfield said he was campaigning outside of Trinity Lutheran Church on Old Warren Road when he saw voters being turned away.
“I was out here holding signs and I got a phone call from someone saying they were unable to vote at Trinity,” said Whitfield. “I didn’t want to go inside. One of the voters came out and said someone came in and did a download on the computer and now they could no longer vote.”
Whitfield said several people left so he made a call to Adam
and Commissioner Sharon Hardin, who came out to the polling location immediately to assess the problem.
“The technology issues were beyond our control,” said Hardin, who added that one location even had an electric socket out. She credited their technicians who have been working around the clock to set matters straight.
Adam said because all of the machines were not on the internet, the early voters were still in the system, and those machines had to be updated manually.
“The update puts all those votes showing the people that voted yesterday during early voting already in,” said Adam. “I think what happened was the poll workers didn’t get logged back in properly. After you do the update, you have to log back in with all the passwords again.”
Adam said the update was only 30 seconds and once poll workers were logged back in, everything was working again.
Whitfield said he returned to the site later that afternoon and saw many that had left that morning return.
Salina Alexander Day was an afternoon voter at Trinity Lutheran Church, who said she had a pleasant voter experience. “It was pretty easy and I didn’t have any trouble at all,” she said.
Whitfield said that, even though the line to vote wasn’t long, people were turned away from voting. “Even though they returned, this should be a learning process moving forward,” he said.
“It’s new equipment, things are different, and the poll books are updated,” said Adam. “I visited a bunch of poll sites and everything seemed to be working. Some didn’t have a problem at all.”
Hardin said approximately 95% percent of the issues that occurred Tuesday morning, the election team has managed.
“I am grateful we could solve the issues that occurred,” she said. “All hands were on deck and everyone is doing their part.”