Number of Northport voters turned away due to coding glitch  (AL)

Lydia Seabol Avant    Tuscaloosa News    26 August 2008

A number of Northport voters were turned away from the polls because their names were left off the master lists at their polling places.

A coding glitch by the Board of Registrars caused some voters to be left off the master list at their polling locations, said City Clerk Rosemary Nichols.

A few people said they have been turned away from District 5. Others were told they had to fill out a provisional ballot, but volunteer poll workers first had to be trained on how to administer provisional ballots.

By 4 p.m., seven provisional ballots had been turned in in District 4 and eight at District 5, Nichols said.

Some of the coding was also corrected.

“We’ve corrected some of it, as much of it as we can,” Nichols said. “That is why we have the provisional, so we don’t miss the votes.”

The provisional votes will not be counted among the preliminary election counts published later tonight. They will be counted over the next week by the Board of Registrars.