Multiple reports of issues, long lines at Greene Co. polling locations

Update at 5:41 p.m.:

Another Cox Media Group Ohio employee spent more than an hour in line at the Vineyard Church in Beavercreek and left without voting.

Lines at the polling location had been long all day, the employee said. He entered the voting hall about an hour after getting in line, and when he signed his name confirming his identity, his signature was not accepted. After several tries, the poll worker discovered that our employee was mistakenly registered under someone else’s identity.

However, he was allowed to vote after showing his ID and confirming his address. But when he got to the voting booth, it wasn’t working properly. Several poll workers unsuccessfully attempted to repair it for about 30 minutes. But he had to leave to take his wife to the airport and did not vote.

In addition, several voting booths in the polling location were not being used, even though there were long lines, because there were not enough poll workers available.

Update at 12:03 p.m.:

At the Victory Temple polling location in Fairborn, a Cox Media Group Ohio employee waited for nearly two hours to vote this morning, as the line wrapped around the building in the parking lot. Several people said the polling location opened on time, but voting started nearly 30 minutes late because of some issues. A poll worker would not say what those issues were, only that they had been resolved.

Still, people appeared to be in good spirits and waited patiently to vote, despite the cold weather. Some wished they had coffee, and jokingly offered as much as $100 to a woman for her of cup of joe.

The polling employees came out frequently, reminding people to make sure they are at the right polling station and to have their IDs ready to help the lines move along. She also reminded voters to turn their cell phones off before entering the voting hall, and that it was illegal to take selfies at the polling booth.

Other workers offered chairs to the elderly and those with physical difficulties, and had trouble standing in line for an extended period of time.

First report:

We're receiving multiple reports of issues at polling locations in Greene County, but the board of elections indicates those issues appear to have been resolved.

They include: One using paper ballots only because of voting machine issues, long lines at another location because of technical issues and card readers not operational at others.

We have confirmed that St. Augustine Catholic Church in Jamestown had some technical difficulties this morning.The iPads, which are used to verify that people are registered to vote and contains other voters’ information, were malfunctioning. Only two were functioning, causing delays. To be clear, polling stations don’t allow people to vote on iPads.

But according to Llyn McCoy, deputy director of the Greene County Board of Elections, there were connectivity issues with some iPads. As a result of that, hard reboots were necessary, which appeared to fix the issues, McCoy said.

“We’re sending out board workers to the longest lines to help make them move quicker,” McCoy said.

We’re continuing to work to gather more information.

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