Voting hours in one Cape Cod town extended until midnight following vault issue
Voting hours in one Cape Cod town have been extended following a mechanical issue with the town clerk’s vault.
Voters in Barnstable were using paper ballots after the opening of the polls was delayed on Tuesday morning.
Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin has since obtained an order from a Suffolk Superior Court judge requiring Barnstable to keep polling places open until midnight tonight.
“Galvin filed a complaint with the court after a mechanical issue with the town clerk’s vault caused the clerk to be unable to access ballots and delayed the delivery of ballots to polling locations,” a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth said in a statement. “The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division ordered the town clerk this morning to print emergency paper ballots and deliver them to polling locations, so that voters would have the opportunity to vote while the town continued to attempt to access the clerk’s vault.”
About 4,000 mail-in ballots are inside the safe, which were supposed to be sent to 13 precincts in 12 different locations for voters to fill out Tuesday morning. The ballots cannot be processed unless the safe is open.
Emergency paper ballots were printed for voters earlier Tuesday morning after a ballot issue held up primary voting. Paper ballots will be identical to machine-readable ballots, but will need to be hand-counted at the end of the night.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division was notified just after 4 a.m. by the Barnstable town clerk, Ann Quirk, that the vault, which is used to store ballots, was unable to be opened.
Quirk’s office said they are working diligently to get the safe open, calling in emergency crews and locksmiths since they first discovered the problem early Tuesday morning.
Quirk says surrounding town clerks along with town employees will stay late and help count the paper votes, but it will get done.
“The integrity of the election is uppermost in our mind, as a Town clerk that is our job,” says Quirk.
Voters who have questions or concerns can call the Mass. Election office at 1-800-462-VOTE (8683).
UPDATE ON BARNSTABLE ISSUE: The Sec of State says the AG’s office will be filing a complaint on our behalf to ask a judge to extend the polling hours. What time the polls will close will be up to the judge, but I’ll send out an update once that is finalized.
— Robert Goulston (@rgoulston) September 6, 2022
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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