Long lines, difficulties, at multiple polling places across Houston

Voters wait in the line to vote at the Fiesta Mart on Kirby Drive and Old Spanish Trail on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, in Houston. Voters wait in the line to vote at the Fiesta Mart on Kirby Drive and Old Spanish Trail on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, in Houston. Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photographer Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Long lines, difficulties, at multiple polling places across Houston 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Voters are seeing long lines at multiple polling places across Houston due to technical difficulties.

3:15 p.m. CST Update:

Lacy Johnson got to cast a standard ballot after all. A poll worker error earlier in the day forced her to cast a provisional ballot, but Johnson was not satisfied.

She reached out to multiple advocacy groups and the Harris County Clerk's Office and eventually found someone with the election board who could walk poll workers through generating an additional access code.

Once she had a new access code, Johnson was finally able to cast her standard ballot.

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At Four Points By Sheraton Houston Greenway Plaza, Election Judge Poppy Northcutt said several people showed up to the polling location with an outdated address.

She didn't remember the exact number of people who did so, but she said they were either given a provisional ballot or directed to a polling station in their listed precinct.

"Sometimes they think that updating [an address] is automatic," Northcutt said.

Northcutt also said election workers encountered a strange issue with the iPads used to verify voter registration.

Normally, election workers scan driver's license information with the device, and the voter's personal information shows up on the screen. But when workers scanned four voters' driver's licenses into the system, the wrong names appeared on the screen, she said.

Northcutt said she confirmed those voters' registration with the county.

"It's very strange," she said. "I haven't seen that particular thing happen before."

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12:00 p.m. CST Update:

Lacy Johnson tried to cast her ballot but a mistake by poll workers made it impossible.

Johnson handed her driver's license to poll workers to get checked in. They printed out a bar code, which when scanned, would produce an access code she could use to cast her ballot.

But the bar code didn't scan. And the first poll worker had already moved away from the check-in screen, so the system showed that she had already voted. Her only option was to cast a provisional ballot at that point.

"They would not guarantee that my ballot would be counted," Johnson said. "I vote in every single election. This is the first time I've had anything like this happen."

Helen Bledsoe, the election judge at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, said the workers had problems with the iPads used to confirm voter registration on Tuesday morning.

She said it took about five to 10 minutes after polls opened to get the devices up and running.

Additionally, she said Johnson and another voter had to cast provisional ballots this morning because of a worker error with the iPad.

The worker accidentally closed out of the screen used to produce the code required to cast ballots, she said. That issue occurred with two consecutive voters, forcing the election workers to give each voter a new code with a provisional ballot, she said.

Bledsoe said the worker likely touched the wrong part of the screen and is now paying closer attention.

"We've gotten it all straightened out," she said as voters trickled into the church building.

Joseph Lorenzo Hall is the Chief Technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Hall says the system Harris County is using to check voters in makes it easy for a mistake to disenfranchise people.

"It's a horrific design," Hall said. "I'd expect this to be happening across Houston, but hopefully only for one to three voters per polling place"

It's not a huge number of voters but those voters are going to be pretty frustrated, according to Hall. An easy modification to the process is to ensure poll workers wait till the voter has activated the code before changing screens. It would result in some what slower lines but at least no one would lose their right to cast a standard ballot, according to Hall.

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Original story, filed 8:30 a.m.:

Xenia Kulick got to her polling place at Notre Dame Catholic Church at 6:45 a.m. with about 20 other fellow voters. When doors opened, voters had to wait 20 more minutes as poll workers struggled to get registration check-in machines working properly. By the time Kulick cast her ballot, there was a long line of about 60 people waiting. Only one machine was up and ready to check people in. There were no issues with the voting machines themselves.

The election judge at the location says the iPads used to certify voter registration were down for less than 10 minutes. She has poll workers inputting addresses manually to not hold up the line. Roughly 70 people waiting to vote as of 8 a.m.

Reported voting problems in Texas The Houston Chronicle will be checking in on reports of problems at the polls today. Follow along as we map the problems that are reported to us. Click on the markers to see the reported problem and whether or not it's been resolved. Legend:

Purple: Voter problems

Red: Long lines

Blue: Houston Chronicle HQ

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Brianna Smith of Katy has waiting in line since 6:45 a.m. and has still not cast a ballot. Election workers told her there were issues with the machine that gives you your ticket to cast a ballot.

"This was an early voting location so I don't know how they could be having problems with their machines," Smith told a reporter Tuesday morning.

As of 8 a.m., the line to vote was wrapped around the building several times according to Smith.

David Goldblatt of Houston went to his polling place at the Holiday Inn near NRG Stadium at 6:45 in the morning. He said when he first arrived, none of the machines were working to check people in. Goldblatt waiting in line for 45 minutes before getting to cast his ballot. He said there was only two check-in machines working by the time he voted.

"In 2016, I didn't vote because I was in medical school in south Texas and I just didn't have the time," Goldblatt said. "It was very important to me to cast a ballot this time around."

Poll workers at Marshall Middle School in Houston kicked out a reporter trying to verify reports that the location did not open on time at 7 a.m. this morning.

"They had a little trouble getting in because no one would let them in this morning," said Mary Kartes, deputy clerk with the Harris County Clerk's office. "I don't think there was a delay."

A campaign worker outside the polling place said she heard from a woman saying the polling location was not open at 7 a.m.

Poll workers had difficulty using the check-in machines at Martin Elementary when polls opened this morning.

"We just had information overload," said the precinct's election judge Javier Pagan. He told a reporter that too many people were trying to enter access codes at once which caused a delay. It took an hour and a half before voters could start casting ballots.

Angela Holland, an election protection volunteer, said voting machines were not working when she arrived to a nursing home polling location off Voss in Houston. Half of the machines were up and running by 7:15 a.m. and 14 of 16 were operating by 8:15 a.m. The delay caused lines of 40 to 50 people but had settled down once everything was up and running.e exciting and they're saying it takes about 20 minutes to vote.

Reporter Samantha Ketterer contributed to this story.

The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News are participating in Electionland, a ProPublica project that will cover access to the ballot and problems that prevent people from exercising their right to vote during the 2018 election. This story is part of that project.

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