Readfield voting machine stops working twice on Election Day

Machine first stopped working shortly after polls opened, went down again in afternoon

Machine first stopped working shortly after polls opened, went down again in afternoon

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Machine first stopped working shortly after polls opened, went down again in afternoon

Long lines were reported at many polling places in Maine on Tuesday, but one town had a voting machine stop working at two different points on Election Day.

In Readfield, the electronic ballot collection box stopped working just minutes after the polls opened at 8 a.m., leading to a long line of voters.

Town Clerk Kristin Parks tell Maine's Total Coverage the machine was working again after about half an hour after it was cleaned and rebooted, and that things were running smoothly by 9 a.m.

All ballots that were collected while the machine was not working were quickly fed into the machine.

Parks said at 11:30 a.m. that voter turnout had been very steady and strong all morning and there had been no other issues.

But on Tuesday evening, Parks confirmed the ballot collection box did go down again in the afternoon. The machine was down for a few hours due to the fact workers had to wait for guidance from technical support, but the machine is now back up and running.

Parks said voting was not delayed when the machine went down for a second time because ballots were able to be cast in an auxiliary bin.

"We have had a great, steady turnout all day with very patient voters," Parks told Maine's Total Coverage.

Parks said there is no impact on polling times in Readfield, but she did note poll workers may be working later than usual to ensure all the votes are counted.

Voting in Readfield was held at Kents Hill School in the Alfond Athletic Center.