EVANSVILLE – It was like sticking a crinkled dollar bill in a vending machine.
Since Vanderburgh County voters are asked to fold their paper ballots before plopping them in the polling place drop box, some were left with little divots. That occasionally proved too much for the tabulating machines – even though they’re considered state-of-the-art equipment by Indiana election standards.
That forced workers to spread the ballots out on shelves and weigh them down with heavy boxes. Only then could they be fed into the bubble-jet-looking tabulators and counted.
The issue was just one of several hiccups workers encountered Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at the Civic Center as Vanderburgh County struggled to release results after a busy election that saw more than 70,000 people cast a ballot.
Vanderburgh was one of the last counties in the state to finish their count, with all votes finally tallied around 4 p.m. Wednesday. But it wasn’t for lack of preparation. County Clerk Marsha Abell Barnhart said they did everything they could to speed things up, only to be hampered by a state law that’s made things exceedingly complicated.