Wi-Fi issues, downed ballot scanners, bomb threats among issues reported at polling locations

Polling locations across the country are experiencing Wi-Fi issues, downed ballot scanners, voting machine difficulties, long lines and delayed openings — all common Election Day issues, according to the Election Protection Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that focuses on voter rights.

Representatives from the coalition provided midday updates taken from their voter hotline reports as well as early physical and technical challenges they’re gathering from poll workers at polling locations during an online media briefing focused on East Coast and southern states.

“Since the hotline opened July 1, the coalition said its volunteers have received 45,000 calls, with nearly 6,000 of those as of noon Eastern Time today,” Virginia Kase Solomón, president & CEO of Common Cause, which co-leads the Election Protection Coalition, said during the call, adding that the majority of the hotline calls are from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, and Michigan, which are all battleground states.

During the last general election cycle, the Election Protection Coalition hotline fielded 246,000 calls, according to its website.

Damon Hewitt, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told members of the press that e-poll books — the electronic version of physical poll books used to check-in voters — were down across Jefferson County, Kentucky, where polls close at 6 p.m. EST. Hewitt also said that in Florida, the Secretary of State’s poll-locator tool was reportedly not functioning throughout the morning.

The coalition also received reports of ballot scanners not working in several states, including Alabama, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Virginia. Beyond those states, there are increased reports of issues with scanners in Cambria and Bedford counties, Pennsylvania.

Pamela Smith, CEO of Verified Voting, told reporters that the organization received reports of touchscreens on voting machines not being properly calibrated, leading to incorrect selections. But Smith said this technical issue is common, and not a cause for concern.

“In past election cycles, we’ve seen same brands, same model, but made it different places where the screens went out of calibration regularly on one batch, and made it a different place they never went out of calibration equipment, so calibration for touch screens is just a common thing, not anything to worry about,” Smith said.

“Election officials have been really planning for this election from the moment the last election ended, and they have these mitigation plans in place,” she added.

In addition, Smith said there were issues with Wi-Fi connections impacting electronic poll books at some polling locations, leading to voter registration database syncing issues, delays, and long lines, notably in San Bernardino County in California.

“Rest assured–voters are still voting and ballots are being properly stored,” Nicole Watkins, a representative for Verified Voting, told StateScoop in an email. “Volunteers at these locations are working diligently to reassure voters that their ballots will be properly cast and counted.”

Polling locations on college campuses in Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were also experiencing long lines, Kase Solomón told reporters. She added that voters in Georgia, Illinois, and Kentucky were reporting delayed polling location openings.

“We have already received 12,000 calls on the hotline, and as the day goes along, we will expect to have more,” Solomón said during the online briefing. “And many of those calls are very, very simple: there are long lines. There was a delay in opening things that you would normally see in an election that aren’t cause of a crisis, but obviously we want to get them fixed.”

However, several polling locations reportedly experienced security threats that were not simple or common.

For instance, in Fulton County, Georgia, Eric Paulk, chief of staff at voting advocacy organization ProGeorgia, told reporters that two polling locations were evacuated due to non-credible bomb threats. Etris Community Center and Gullatt Elementary, both in Union City outside of Atlanta, are requesting extensions of polling hours to accommodate for the disruption.

The Election Protection Coalition is hosting another media briefing later today focused on states in the Midwest and on the West Coast.