November 4, 2008
Posted: November 4th, 2008 08:20 PM ET

From

VELDA CITY, Missouri (CNN) - Pollworkers failed to set up about half the number of available machines at the city hall polling station, slowing the process to a crawl, said a county elections board representative. Seven hour waits were reported late afternoon. Elections officials said the polling location was so small that the 14 workers on-site decided it would be too cramped if they set up all the machines.

Three touchscreens and two optical scanners had been set up to accommodate about 1,200 registered voters, while 4 additional optical scanners remained unpacked. By 4pm, election board director Judge Joseph Goeke had identified the problem and ordered that workers set up the remaining idle units.

The county elections board representative told CNN that wait times are back down to 2 hours at the site, and that all voters in line will be allowed to cast their ballots.

Filed under: Missouri • Voter Problems


April Simmons   November 4th, 2008 9:44 pm ET

Besides the fact I waited in line for 3 hours just to get inside the doors to vote.....after I voted the ballet counter broke we has to wait another hour for it still not to be fixed. They ended up putting all our ballots into an envelope. We were screwed over the last election, I think there could of been a much more organized way to get this done..... not just the long lines but it you know you will have record amount of voters shouldn't there be more than one place to put your ballets. I just dont trust the system enough to make sure that my vote counts. We are in Grandview MO and everybody who voted had a problem today. Early voting is going to be the way to go on the next big election!!!

David   November 4th, 2008 8:47 pm ET

Why don't these places just get more voting places and machines? DUH

maurice   November 4th, 2008 8:34 pm ET

i think the same thing will happen that happened in 2000 and 2004 the canidate that should have won will be robbed by the electorial college

Rex   November 4th, 2008 8:31 pm ET

last line in the first paragraph should read " GOP Elections officials said the polling location was so small that the 14 workers on-site decided it would be too cramped if they set up all the machines.

Rebecca   November 4th, 2008 8:30 pm ET

There is no excuse for this kind of garbage. It's not like they didn't know that record numbers would come out for this election.

The Republicans have stolen elections before. . .

Oddly enough, there have been election problems in VA and NC as well - two swing states. Go figure.

andre f   November 4th, 2008 8:27 pm ET

hi. my friend. i thank that obana witoug is win .

HouseDiva   November 4th, 2008 8:26 pm ET

oh yeah... thanks for covering it CNN..kudos

HouseDiva   November 4th, 2008 8:25 pm ET

the polls in heavily democratic st. louis county and city are ridiculous.

University student   November 4th, 2008 8:24 pm ET

Long lines...long waits...just adds to reasoning that really discourages people to vote. It's amazing that on the day of the election that machines are either not set up and/or are not working. You would think these problems would be fixed prior to this day. IT'S THE GENERAL ELECTION! You had four years to get these problems fixed.

K   November 4th, 2008 8:23 pm ET

I think there is a math error on the dashboard right now. The electoral votes for OBama should add to 78 not 77.

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