JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ky. — Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw apologized after Louisville voters were delayed the morning of Election Day due to technology issues at some polling locations.
"It's my responsibility, and I take responsibility for it," said Holsclaw. “We did the best we could possibly do with the situation. I feel like I learned from it. And, you know, all I can say is, you know, I do apologize to anybody that had to wait. It's never our hope for that. I think this is the first election we've ever had that to happen.”
Polling places were plagued with long wait times and long lines out the door following computer delays Tuesday morning.
Holsclaw said the issues began at the start of the day when polls opened at 6 a.m., the issues started to clear up around 9:30 a.m., and everything was back to normal around 11 a.m.
"The WIFI was not big enough to hold what was the early voting and then go to the next day, but all that had to be downloaded for Election Day," said Holsclaw. "We found out the hard way. We've never had that problem with the WIFI, but yesterday morning we did."
Holsclaw said the WIFI wasn't equipped to download the hundreds of thousands of voter names in the county, including those who had already voted.
"I vote here in Jefferson County, so obviously I'm very personally frustrated by how the election went here yesterday morning," said Secretary of State Michael Adams.
Adams said the county specifically had trouble with multi-precinct voting locations because they had more information to download.
"One hundred nineteen counties correctly turned on their equipment soon enough to process the information download that was necessary for the electronic poll books, and unfortunately, in some places here, that didn't happen," said Adams. "The poor poll workers didn't know what to do. It took forever. They just kept hitting reboot, and they added more time. So we've got to have better training, I think. But we also need clear standards in state law."
Jefferson County was the only county to experience the technology delays.
"Let me just say this to Secretary Adams, there is no way that that equipment can be downloaded in Jefferson County in a matter of 12 hours. It's impossible," Holsclaw said. "Now maybe it is, if he can bring in a lot of trucks and a lot of manpower."
More than 300,000 voters turned out to vote in-person in the county Tuesday.
Adams is left wondering if there would have been more voters without the delays.
"I believe that there were people who didn't get to vote yesterday because of this, and I'm pretty furious," he said.
Holsclaw doesn't see it that way.
"I would hope that everybody that wanted to vote were was able to vote. I know some people left and came back," she said.
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