Local elections run smoothly Tuesday

From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, things ran smoothly. But when the Election Day polls closed, things got complicated.

Voters reported few problems in Monroe County, but tallying changes delayed the results of many races.

“There was a line and wait at 6 a.m., but it slowed down during the day,” said Jim Delpha, election sheriff at the Woodlawn Fire Department poll location.

And while there were lines at Assembly Hall throughout the day, many student voters waiting said it was moving fast.

“I’ve only been waiting about five or 10 minutes,” first-time voter George Malone said as polls were closing. “But it would be worth it to wait hours if I had to.”

But after the polls closed at 6 p.m., problems arose for the county election board. The first problem was when poll workers brought back the machine counts.

Unlike prior years, the votes were not added up for quick tallying, which caused problems for distributing vote totals to the public.

Guy Loftman, county election board member, said the election board made a decision about a month ago to change the process due to the high margin of error during May’s primary elections that resulted because poll workers added and tallied the votes.
“What was happening in the spring was that these poll workers, who are working 11- to 14-hour days, were being told to fill in any numbers they wanted in the tally sheets,” Loftman said. “And as I looked into it, it was actually true.”

He said the only purpose for tallying them up before they arrived at the clerk’s office was for the media.

The change meant local results were delayed and incomplete by press time.
“We dropped the ball by not telling the media,” Loftman said, though he added the change in tally procedures was discussed at a public meeting.

Loftman also said he thinks the new process helped speed up counting, even though results were not tallied until about 1 a.m.

Jim Fielder, county election board secretary and Monroe County clerk, said another problem arose when they realized eight people in Monroe County voted twice, first by absentee then again by machine on Election Day.

In addition to fixing the double-voting problem, two other absentee ballot voters died before Election Day, so the election board had to find and remove their votes.
Fielder said there were no mechanical problems that didn’t get taken care of in a timely manner.

“We repaired what did have problems before it affected anything,” he said.
Official precinct totals will be available later this week.