Voters can still cast ballot in Mercer County despite issues
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) -- A county in New Jersey is experiencing issues with its voting machines. All machines in each district in Mercer County are down due to a printing and scanning issue with the ballots.
It's been a mixed reaction from voters and political candidates with some saying the process has been smooth, while other candidates say voters have called them with alarming concerns about the process.
Gail, who declined to give her last name, said she had to make two visits to Trenton High School to finally get her ballot submitted.
"Very frustrating because I got off work this morning," Gail said. "And guess what? The machines were not working."
She continued, "I submitted my ballot. It went in and said, 'please wait.' Then it came out invalid. We did it over again because maybe [I filled] too much out the circle. So, we tried to do it very perfect for the machine, and it still didn't work."
Gail chose to leave and come back later in the day to cast her ballot.
The Mercer County Board of Elections' secretary said voting results will be somewhat delayed, including in key races like the Third Congressional District.
In social media posts, both Rep. Kim and Republican challenger Bob Healey said they're monitoring the situation and encouraging people to go out and vote.
It's important to emphasize that voters in Mercer County can still vote. The Mercer County clerk says there's a problem with Dominion Voting Systems' scanners not reading the ballot.
A Dominion spokesperson says they believe the problem is with the printed ballots and not its technology.
Each scanner has a slot where voters can securely insert their ballots after they fill them out, but the county will have to count the ballots manually.
Many voters say it was a surprise not having the machines to help with voting.
"It's worse with this stuff," Trenton resident Dora Thomas said. "I'm used to machines, going in, pushing the buttons and you get out of there. This, you gotta circle, you gotta do that, it's crazy."
