NEWS

County: 'Several' precincts have run out of ballots

Luis Hernandez
lfhernan@visaliatimesdelta.com
Tulare County elections' office.

County officials are reporting some precincts have run out paper ballots and voters are now must use touchscreens to cast their vote.

Hiley Wallis, Tulare County deputy treasurer/tax collector, said the elections office started receiving reports of precincts running out of ballots mid-afternoon.

Wallis said she didn't know how many locations ran out paper ballots, but did say there were several.

She said some voters are having to wait as much as one hour to vote. In some locations, there was only one touchscreen.

"But we are deploying more to the locations," Wallis said.

Sid Carter, Tulare, waited in line at Prosperity Avenue Baptist church for only only one touchscreen until he demanded a physical ballot.

"I wanted a ballot to write on I didn't want to do it on a touchscreen because I didn't feel comfortable," he said. "I was going to be here for two hours. "

He wondered, if they had ballots, why they couldn't they give them to voters. The  officials said they were holding them for provisional voters and wanted everyone else to wait hours for one touchscreen machine.

Voters who are in line by 8 p.m., the time precincts were scheduled to close, will get a chance to vote, Wallis said.