Voters in the busy polling station at Edgewood School faced a choice mid-afternoon Tuesday: Hope somebody scans in your ballot later, or stick around for a while to see for yourself.
That’s because a paper ballot got stuck in the machine that scans, and officially records, people’s votes.
Voter Andy Horowitz decided not to wait around. A poll worker told him to slip his ballot into a side slot on the machine and promised it would be counted later.
“I don’t know if my vote got counted or not,” Horowitz said. “I didn’t get a receipt.”
The ward’s alderman, Greg Dildine, reports from the scene that the machine was fixed and it’s working now. The disruption lasted “not more than 15 minutes,” Dildine said.
City Registrar of Voters Sharon Ferrucci said a few machines jammed in the course of the day and were promptly fixed.
“Sometimes somebody gets the [the ballots] damp or moist or wet. In one ward there were two stuck together,” Ferrucci said. “We have four techs running out doing what they have to do.”