Election error causes delays at no-excuse absentee polling places in Greene County

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Thursday morning, a technical glitch involving an electronic vote collector delayed the election at the election center on North Boonville in Springfield.

Election workers without excuse told absentee voters they could wait until the machine was repaired or place the ballot in a steel box. A bipartisan team would then insert the ballots into the machine. A short time later, election crews added a second election vote collector.

Voters like Jaime Benson said this outage caused a lot of confusion for absentee voters.

“There was a woman behind me who wanted to drop off her ballot, and she asked me, ‘Is the brown box where I need to drop off my ballot?’ “I said no, that’s the trash bin,” Benson said.

We asked Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller if county leaders can open more locations so lines don’t back up in the future.

“In future elections we will look at how we can perhaps add one or two additional locations. Also keep in mind that we need to have the people there who can accommodate voters,” Schoeller said.

Greene County opened two election polls for no-excuse ballots. The second location is at the Library Center on South Campbell.

The clerks will ask you to know your ballot before you vote. CLICK HERE for sample ballots for counties in the Ozarks.

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