Some Tri-State area voters face machine problems, long lines
SOUNDVIEW, Bronx (WABC) -- After weeks of competing claims of fraud and intimidation on Election Day, few voters who headed to the polls Tuesday morning encountered such problems, though there were some reports of machine breakdowns and long lines.
The run-up to the vote was fraught, with unsupported claims by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of a rigged election and fears that hackers might attack voting systems. Concerns of voter intimidation and fraud led to a flurry of lawsuits in the run-up to Election Day, and new voter regulations in more than a dozen states also held the potential to sow confusion at polling places.
"Hopefully it's relatively calm. Hopefully it doesn't blow up. But this hasn't been a regular election year," said Wendy Weiser, head of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU's Law School.
But at least in the early going, most of the problems were routine - the kinds of snags that come every four years, like lines, machines not working properly, and issues with ballots or voter rolls.
There were voting delays throughout parts of the Bronx early Tuesday morning, with officials blaming the glitch on the Board of Election not providing keys to scanner machines. It forced police to rush in with a back-up set, prompting some locations to open later than expected and with long lines already backed up.
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Sources said as many as 15 different sites within the 43rd Precinct, which is in the Parkchester neighborhood, had key problems Tuesday morning, angering many voters who were there waiting for polling places to open. Long lines and scattered mechanical issues were also reported throughout Manhattan and Queens.
Similar problems were reported in Jersey City, with some voters outraged over the hours-long wait.
In Connecticut, a spokesperson for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said the wrong ballots were delivered to a polling place in northern Hartford, and voting went on for more than an hour before the problem was discovered. Patrick Gallahue said the ballots contained the wrong candidate for the state legislature, and those votes will be discounted.
Long lines were reported in New Haven, and Merrill advised city officials to get extra staff. Officials also reported a few voting machines broke down in some towns.
