Reply #9: TN: Long ballot and longer lines frustrate voters [View All]

[rumpel]

Tennessean.com

Friday, 08/04/06

By ANNE PAINE
Staff Writer

Long lines at several polling locations around the state left some voters sweltering in the hot sun for hours and others waiting hours after polls closed to cast ballots.
Delays were chalked up to lengthy ballots and, in several cases, to new computer voting systems. Lines also backed up as people hit the polls after work.

At 9 p.m., two hours after the polls closed, voters were still waiting in Vanleer and the Charlotte area, according to the Dickson County Election Commission.
Vote tallying bogged down in several counties, including Wilson.
In Davidson County, Eastland Baptist Church precinct workers didn't bring the memory card containing the votes cast to the Election Commission office.
"We're out there trying to get it right now," Ray Barrett, Davidson election administrator, said at 11:25 p.m. Thursday.
The church was locked and efforts were under way to reach church leaders to get back in. The same situation occurred with the old machines, he said.
It will make little difference in the vote totals for the county, Barrett said.

http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060804/NEWS0206/608040434/1297/MTCN02