Voters walk away from East Valley polling place amid delays, possible technical issues

Election Day voters at one East Valley vote center experienced long lines amid reports of technical issues Tuesday.

About 10:30 a.m., the Maricopa County Election Department reported a high volume of voters at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

The department advised voters in the area to consider casting their ballots at Tumbleweed Recreation Center in Chandler or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Catalina Street in Gilbert.

“We know that voters are still able to be served. Voters can still drop off their ballots. We have teams throughout the Valley … that are ready to triage,” Assistant County Manager Zach Shira told reporters at the Maricopa County Elections and Tabulation Center in Phoenix when asked about the issues at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

An on-site election worker told KTAR News 92.3 FM a fuse went out on a printer, which needed to be replaced.

As of noon, the county’s interactive vote center map showed a 49-minute wait and more than 130 voters in line at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

Voters leave Chandler-Gilbert Community College line to vote elsewhere

Voter Adrian Pardee said she heard an election worker making a phone call for help about a printer problem.

“The line hasn’t been moving, so I’m going to try somewhere else, perhaps Tumbleweed in Chandler,” Pardee said.

Elise Weeks also tried to vote at the community college but had to change her plans.

“I guess they’re out of printer ink, so you can’t actually vote,” Weeks said. “And then the people that were coming out were saying they were having problems putting their ballots in and getting them read properly.”

Weeks said she and another voter looked up other polling locations on their phones.

“I wasn’t here long, maybe 20 minutes, but the gentleman that came by to tell us to look for other sites has been here for over two hours,” she said.

County officials said all of the Phoenix area’s 254 vote center opened as scheduled at 6 a.m. Tuesday. The polls close at 7 p.m.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Shira Tanzer and Balin Overstolz-McNair contributed to this report.

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