Some Polls Will Stay Open Late in Pennsylvania and Georgia; North Carolina Weighs Extensions
Voting will run late at a handful of polling places after Election Day problems in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and North Carolina officials say their first results could come an hour later than planned.
In Chester County, Pennsylvania, the Court of Common Pleas granted a 30-minute extension at three precincts after voting machine setup problems delayed their opening Tuesday morning, WGAL reported.
Precinct 201 at the Easttown Township Library, Precinct 210 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church and Precinct 244 at Goshen Baptist Church will stay open until 8:30 p.m., Patch reported.
Votes cast after 8 p.m. at those sites will be on provisional ballots, the county said. Every other Chester County polling place closes at 8 p.m. as scheduled.
In Georgia, Gwinnett County election officials asked a judge to extend voting by seven minutes at Rockbridge Elementary School in Norcross after a school safety drill paused voting, the AJC reported. The request would keep that site open until 7:07 p.m.
Statewide, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said only one Georgia polling place opened late, a Mitchell County site that opened 10 minutes behind schedule.
North Carolina Results Could Slip
The North Carolina State Board of Elections held an emergency meeting at 2 p.m. to consider extending hours where technical problems disrupted voting. Results could be pushed from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., WRAL reported.
The board’s agenda listed polling places in Columbus, Gates, Hertford, Lenoir, Watauga, Wilkes and Wilson counties. A board spokesman called the meeting routine, saying it is labeled an emergency only to meet notice rules.
In Columbus County, a computer went down at a Tabor City site, and workers switched to a backup. No one was turned away, WECT reported.
State law lets the board extend hours only at sites where voting stopped for at least 15 minutes, and only for as long as the disruption lasted. Ballots cast after 7:30 p.m. are provisional.
Executive Director Sam Hayes said glitches like power outages, tabulator problems and printer jams come up every election. “These are not indications of malicious activity,” he said, according to The NC Beat.
“We want every eligible voter to have the opportunity to participate, and we want every lawful vote to count,” Hayes said, Public Radio East reported.
Elsewhere in the state, voting went smoothly. A Mecklenburg County elections spokeswoman told the Charlotte Observer there had been “a nice steady flow” of voters and no reports of long lines.
The timing matters in a state with a high-stakes Senate race between Republican Michael Whatley and Democrat Roy Cooper. Any county that gets extra time will hold its results until all its voting is done.
Anyone in line when polls close can still vote. North Carolina polls close at 7:30 p.m., Georgia’s at 7 p.m. and Pennsylvania’s at 8 p.m.
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