Voting off to fast start
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voting was proceeding relatively smoothly Tuesday morning in Lincoln County, with steady traffic in many precincts but no long lines.
Election officials did report scattered problems with electronic voting machines. At the Brookhaven High School precinct, one voting machine out of four was down early Tuesday morning.
The City Hall precinct also had one of its four machines down, and Helen Funk, currently a deputy circuit clerk, said the machine could not be fixed by local officials.
Funk also reported minor and easily repaired problems with voting machines at the Enterprise and Bogue Chitto precincts.
Traffic was steady during a spot check of precincts Tuesday morning. The Government Complex precinct, which often has very low vote totals early in the morning, had recorded 81 votes by 9 a.m.
The Brookhaven High School precinct, another precinct that sometimes runs low in vote totals, reported 52 votes after being open more than an hour.
Records at the City Hall precinct showed 86 votes a little before 9 a.m. and a little after 9 Halbert Heights precinct records showed 207 votes cast while the Nothwest Brookhaven precinct at the recreation department reported 64 voters.
Halbert Heights often has high vote totals.
Polls remain open until 7 p.m. Tuesday. Anyone in line at a precinct at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote, but anyone arriving at a precinct after 7 will not be allowed to vote.
In addition to votes made electronically Tuesday, election officials will have to count approximately 1,700 absentee ballots cast on paper ballots. In recent elections, problems with paper ballots have plagued the vote-counting process in Lincoln County.