Dealing with Tulsa County voting complaints

Tulsa County Election Board officials say they were not aware of any major problems on Election Day. <br/><br/>The News on 6 received a number of complaints from viewers. There were reports of broken

Tuesday, November 2nd 2004, 9:44 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa County Election Board officials say they were not aware of any major problems on Election Day.

The News on 6 received a number of complaints from viewers. There were reports of broken voting machines. But Tulsa County officials say that out of 259 machines, only 12 have needed repairs and only 4 have been replaced. They say that's less than usual.

One man was upset because at one Tulsa County precinct, the ballots were sitting on a table while the machine was being repaired. But officials say the ballots were watched at all times.

One voter complained that voting was delayed at 56th and Harvard until 7:45 AM because the precinct inspector was late. But officials say it was more like 7:15 AM.

Shelley Boggs with the Tulsa County Election Board says the biggest problem, if you can call it that was the sheer numbers of voters, much more than in the 2000 election. "Y'know, now its just volume of voters that are turning out and numbers are way up. More than we ever expected, very, very high turnout today."

Even with 60 phone lines, the phones at the election board were ringing non-stop all day Tuesday.