Early voting hours will be extended a couple of days next week due to issues the election office encountered on Thursday (Oct 20).
Just prior to early voting time Thursday (Oct. 20) the server at the election commission office malfunctioned and voting was delayed for 30 minutes to an hour.
“The voting machines were not the problem, but the issue was getting the correct voter data before allowing the voter to cast his/her vote on paper,” said Dennis Stanley, Administrator of Elections. “Thanks to the GoVoteTN app, we were soon able to look up a voter, find their correct precinct and then allow them to vote a paper ballot. Then just over 2 hours after the voting time began, we were able to allow voters to vote on the machine.”
By state law, a voter who casts his/her ballot early cannot vote on a machine unless the election commission can immediately update the voting history by computer. “That’s why a few voters who did not want to wait until the server was up and going had to vote on paper ballot,” Stanley explained.
As a result of the short down time, the early voting hours will be extended one hour Monday and Friday of next week.
“Early voting on Monday October 24 will be from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and the hours of Friday, October 28 will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” Stanley said. Early voting hours the other days will remain the same.
“We appreciate the patience of the voters on Thursday (this afternoon). We know there is a great deal of interest in this election and we worked very hard to get everything back to normal, and we did in just over 2 hours,” he said. “Our thanks also to our vendors and the Tennessee Division of Election staff for their assistance.”
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