FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – There was a snag as voting kicked off on Super Tuesday in the San Joaquin Valley.
California was among 13 other states voting Tuesday but issues caused back-ups for voters in Fresno and Tulare Counties.
Fresno County Registrar of Voters Brandi Orth, speaking on KMJ’s Broeske & Musson Show, explained the problem.
“We opened all of the 53 vote centers this morning on time, and a short time ago we had a little hiccup electronically, but all the vote centers are online and able to check electronically check folks in,” said Orth.
Orth continued; “it has nothing to do with the voting system – because it’s what they call air-gapped – there’s no connectivity to the voting equipment – it’s just totally on the electronic voting process.”
If you are not registered to vote, Orth said you can still register to vote at a vote center or the office at anytime.
At a press conference in downtown Fresno on Tuesday afternoon, Mayoral candidate Andrew Janz called on Brandi Orth to extend voting by one hour because of the issues.
The County of Fresno Administrative Office released this information:
This is just a reminder that ALL Fresno County Vote Centers and drop box locations will remain open until voting concludes at 8:00 PM this evening. Voters who haven’t yet voted or submitted their ballots may do so at ANY Vote Center location.
• A listing of all Fresno County Vote Centers is provided below and may also be found online HERE.
• A listing of all Fresno County drop box locations may be found online HERE.
• All Fresno County election information maybe be found at http://votefresnocounty.com/Please note that any concerns of intermittent Internet connectivity that were reported earlier today were quickly resolved by the Secretary of State and all centers are operating as intended.
Tulare County saw its own issues on Super Tuesday.
The following statement was released by the Tulare County Registrar of Voters Office.
This morning the Registrar of Voters Office was notified by polling staff that some voting machines are currently down due to software error messaging and not in operation. Officials are aware and working diligently with the machine manufacturer to target the error and resolve the problem.
Election Officials are actively gathering information from all 50 polling sites in the County to confirm exactly how many voting machines are being affected. We have confirmed six of the total 65 voting machines throughout the County are currently down and not in operation.
The Tulare County Registrar of Voters Office is prepared with an ample supply of back up paper ballots allowing everyone arriving at polling sites the ability to vote in today’s primary election. Polling sites will remain open until 8:00 pm tonight. The County is committed to properly recording every vote and conducting a secure election.
Click to listen a report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
