Voters at the Leon Valley Conference Center waited up to two hours to cast ballots after a scanner malfunction delayed voting, according to people at the polling location.
KSAT spoke with Bexar County elections officials who confirmed there was an issue with the scanners with ballots getting jammed, which they are addressing.
Some voters said it took an hour and a half to two hours, and KSAT noted the line wrapped around the building at some points in the day.
Voters like Roberto Flores said issues in equipment delayed his voting process around 11 a.m. Tuesday. He explained to KSAT what poll workers told him.
“They’re like, ‘Hey, the ballot box actually malfunctioned,’” Flores said. “It’s not reading all the ballots right, just because there’s too many of us.”
Other voters noted it took 30 to 45 minutes for the issue to get fixed, which held up the line.
Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew explained that the scanner at Leon Valley Conference Center wasn’t full, and in fact can handle around 2,000 votes. At around 1,200 votes, she said the scanner got jammed.
“It wasn’t too full, but we are noticing with our new scanners that the ballots, when they’re falling into the box, are not falling the way we’d like them to,” she said.
Carew said technicians would be at polling locations moving forward and explained that there are emergency bins if the scanner is not accepting ballots.
“Our judges have the process to open those and put those (ballots) in there, and then those ballots will be counted here, at headquarters.”
One voter said she noticed people chose to wait for the scanner to be fixed, rather than put their ballots in those bins.
“I noticed that lots of people said, ‘I will wait and put it in myself,’ instead of saying, ‘leave it here and somebody else can put it in,’” Cathy Hazzard said.
Some voters said the line prevented them from voting right away. One voter who came during her lunch break said she planned to return after work.
Despite the delays, voters said they were willing to wait and thanked election workers.
“They can’t control how many people turn out. So they’re doing their job,” voter Sheldon said.
The first day of early voting drew about 10,000 more voters than the first day of early voting in the 2022 midterm election. At around 3 p.m. Tuesday, Carew said 30,000 people had cast their ballot.
To check estimated wait times at Bexar County polling locations, click here.
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