Ballot, machines may make for longer wait

The wait for election night results could be a little longer Thursday evening as a bigger ballot and new voting machines could slow tabulations after the polls close at 7 p.m.

?I know how the candidates and the public are used to getting the results almost instantaneously so I just want to advise them this could take longer than it did in May,? said Election Administrator Donna Yates. ?It could be as late as 11 p.m. before we have everything completed, I just don?t know.?

Polls at all 21 precincts around the county will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Meanwhile, a team of 10 vote counters will begin counting the nearly 5,000 early and absentee votes at 8 a.m., a job which will take all day.

The August ballot is five pages long, carrying a wide variety of races including six local offices, all 24 county commission spots, school board races and constable races along with yes or no questions on appellate judge positions. Voters can also opt to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary for state and local offices.

?We want people to familiarize themselves with the sample ballot which will be in the paper,? Yates said. ?In this way voters will be prepared and it will make it quicker once they get to the polls. Voters also need to bring their voter card or form of identification.?

Yates said she does not think there will be long lines at the polls even given the larger ballot.

?I?d say over 40 percent have voted early so that will relieve the polls on the election day,? Yates said.

As for potential delays in making results public Thursday night, Yates said votes from the Infinity machines, which are new machines being used to aid the disabled in voting, will have to be manually merged at all 21 precincts with votes from the MicroVote machines. This, added to the longer than usual ballot, will mean results, which were available before 10 p.m. in May, could push deeper into the night.

Yates said there is a Web site the state has posted which can help familiarize voters with the voting system in the comfort of their own home. The site is located at www.state.tn.us/sos/election/voting_systems/index.htm.