Ballots from rural voters in Story County (Iowa) are not able to be put into the machines according to multiple sources.
The Story County Auditor’s office reportedly told KCCI it will request an administrative recount for impacted polling places. The Iowa Secretary of State said it is aware of “technical issues” and noted it “may impact how quickly” results can be reported.
The Iowa Standard talked with one impacted voter in Story County who said their ballot couldn’t be placed into the machine but their son’s could. Their son’s address is listed as his father’s residence in a city while the voter whose ballot couldn’t be placed in the machine is a rural address.
“Prior to this morning I had heard reports from a friend that polling sites were reporting to voters that some ballots were not being accepted into the ballot machine,” they told The Iowa Standard. “And it looks like it appears to be for rural voters only.”
The mother and son went to vote around 10:30 a.m. and asked right away if the machines were working. They were told yes. However, when the mother picked up her ballot, the poll worker explained her ballot wouldn’t be accepted into the machine.
“I let him know that I wasn’t accepting that answer,” she said.
Instead, he said she could vote on a tablet, that ballot could be printed out and then put into the machine.
“That’s what I did,” she said. “I’m hearing this is limited to rural voters only. What concerns me is people are accepting that answer and leaving their paper ballots in a cardboard box and they’re relying on poll workers or whoever to either transport those ballots to the Story County courthouse or be hand-counted. I didn’t want that process to happen with me. I wanted confirmation with the machine that my vote was accepted.”
The Iowa Standard already reported about an issue at a polling site in Dallas County. Here is that story:
On Tuesday a mother and son went to vote together for the first time as the son is 18 years old and participating in his first election. But the experience didn’t go quite as planned.
The Iowa Standard was told there was a line of about 75 people behind them and when they went to turn in their ballots, they were told the machine is jammed.
They said they’d wait and the people in line behind said they’d also wait. Soon people were standing there just waiting and, according to the voter, the election official came over and instructed them to put the ballot in the “emergency bin.”
The son said he had all day and could sit there and wait but the election official allegedly said no, it needed to be turned in.
The mother asked when the ballots would be counted and the election official said there would be a Democrat and Republican who will count them and instructed them not to worry.
The mother asked when that would happen, and was told after polls close.
That contradicts what the Dallas County Auditor’s Office told The Iowa Standard should happen. When issues like this arise, the ballots are to be counted by the machines when they are up and running again.
The woman whose ballot got jammed asked what would happen to her ballot. All they were told was they’d try to figure it out, according to the voter who contacted The Iowa Standard.
Ironically, the voter said she had an appointment this morning and told the lady she was meeting with about what happened and she said that same thing happened to her boss on Tuesday morning in Altoona.
I’m glad there will be no affect on voting