Complaint filed after polling locations open late in Hamilton County
Nov 05, 2024
HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. — The Democratic Party in Hamilton County is filing a complaint against the local election board after several polling locations reportedly did not allow people to vote on time due to a technical issue.
FOX59/CBS4 reported early Tuesday morning that Election Day polling locations in Hamilton County were experiencing technical issues with their voting machines. While the polls were technically open to the public, people were not able to begin voting at 6 a.m. due to the delays.
Around 6:15 a.m., FOX59/CBS4 crews saw at least 80 people waiting to vote outside of the John W. Hensel Government Center in Carmel while poll workers attempted to fix the issue.
The Hamilton County Election Board later confirmed that the issue was caused by a technical issue involving a new code on the machines. The issue was later resolved by technicians pushing a button on the machines. Officials said poll workers were not aware of the issue during training.
In a complaint filed Tuesday afternoon by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, Chair Jocelyn Vare said that at least six local polling locations did not open until 6:15 or 6:30 a.m. due to "problems with ePollBooks." Those locations include:
College Park
Bethlehem Lutheran Church
Carmel Water Distribution
Billericay Park Building
Northview Church (Fishers), and
The Meeting House at West Clay.
INDems said in a statement that hundreds of Hamilton County voters lined up and waited for the issues to be fixed, but that many others had to leave the polls and go to work or attend to other obligations.
"Lines remain heavy throughout Hamilton County, with the failure to open sites on time only exacerbating the problem and backing up polling stations," INDems said in a statement.
The Party's complaint says that Democratic officials want all eligible Hamilton County residents to have the opportunity to vote.
"We submit this correspondence because, to an extent, voters were initially deprived of voting time," Vare wrote in the complaint.
The filing ends by asking that the Election Board conduct an inquiry into the tech malfunction and the effect that it had on voters.