Voter turnout high, some problems reported  (IN)

WLFI     06 May 2008

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -  As of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, 7,740 voters had cast ballots in Tippecanoe County, according to Clerk Linda Phillips. 

Problems were reported at 5:30 a.m. at the Klondike Branch of the Tippecanoe County Public Library on Lindberg Road.   Phillips said that problem was an internet connection problem.   She said the problem was solved "in a few minutes."  During the outage, Phillips said voters were checked in by telephone, which took about one minute longer than normal.   Phillips said she did not believe any voters were inconvenienced because, as of 9:30, 467 voters had cast ballots at the Klondike branch, and that is high compared to other locations.

A problem was also reported at the polling location at Dayton United Methodist Church between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m.  Phillips described that as a "mechanical glitch."   Two vote card encoders froze.  Phillips said that problem only inconvenienced one person, who was offered a provisional ballot.   That voter refused to take the provisional ballot, according to Phillips.   Phillips said the encoder problem was fixed.  As of 9:30 a.m. 277 people had cast ballots at Dayton.   Phillips said that number was also "relatively high" compared to other locations.

Phillips said the busiest site so far is Evangelical Covenant Church, 3600 S. Ninth Street in Lafayette.  The second busiest voting location is the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds on Teal Road in Lafayette.

Phillips said no voting location has fewer than three voting machines.   The most voting machines at a single location is eight.