Voters Met With Long Lines At New Voting Centers In Tarrant County
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Longer than expected lines continued into the evening Tuesday at some Tarrant County voting centers during the first election with new all-electronic voting machines and the ability for voters to use any polling location.
Voters at an East Fort Worth location were still reporting waits of 30 minutes in the last hour of voting.
Voter turnout was also trending higher, creeping toward 11 percent, which would be one of the highest voter turnouts in the county during an off-year November election in the last decade.
The county rolled out its new $11 million machines this year, in order to work out kinks before the 2020 presidential election.
Although training had been completed for more than 1,600 poll workers, Judge Glen Whitely said five voting centers did not open on time Tuesday, because workers were not comfortable on setting up the new system.
He said the county also delivered additional voting machines to four locations during the day, as lines started to form.
At a location in North Richland Hills, some voters left after finding out waits could stretch to an hour.
"They just didn't have enough machine set up," said John McKenzie. "Normally they have like 10 set up in there, and this time they had like three."
Nobody was turned away though Whitely said, as the new state-approved process allowed voters to cast their votes at any polling place in the county, not just the one they are used to using.
While voters are expected to utilize different voting centers with that change, Whitely said the county will not reduce or remove any location until after the 2020 election.
