Ballot Mix-Up Causes Delay At Tulsa Polling Place

Some voters were delayed Tuesday morning because their polling place got the wrong ballots.

A handful of voters showed up bright and early at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning to cast their ballots but a mix-up slowed down the process.

The Tulsa County Election board told News On 6 the print shop delivered the wrong ballots to the precinct box at St Peters Episcopal Church.

The election board officials said the ballots were switched with another polling place nearby so the ballots were quickly switched back so voting could begin.

It's an issue precinct workers said can happen on any voting day and they are thankful the issue was handled so well by election board officials.

Diane Hamilton said she was one of the handful of people waiting in line for more than an hour to cast a ballot at St Peters Episcopal Church.

Hamilton said her bosses allowed her to be late while the ballot issue was worked out but others in line weren't able to vote at all because of the mix-up.  

"If the practices and procedures that are in place are causing people not to be able to vote then we need to take a little bit of a closer look at them and tighten the procedures there," said Hamilton. 

The Election Board said three other polling places opened an hour late Tuesday morning.

Officials said the delay happened because school officials didn't show up on time to open Kerr Elementary, Jackson Elementary, and Keystone Elementary and precinct workers couldn't get in.

There are more than 200 polling places in our area and they all close tonight at 7 p.m.

The State Election Board said the polling stations that opened late will still close at 7 p.m.

Also, signs that were too close to polling stations have been removed.