Missing Paperwork Hampers Knox Co. Voters

Missing Paperwork Hampers Knox Co. Voters

November 5, 2002

By ADRIAN MACLEAN
6 News Reporter

KNOX COUNTY (WATE) -- Voters ran into snags at some Knox County polls Tuesday morning.

By noon, there was a steady stream of voters at Karns Middle School. But it wasn't the case earlier.

Election officials at the school say they didn't have all the necessary materials to hold an election. Specifically, they had no applications for ballots. Those are the orange cards voters fill out before entering the booth.

Officials at Karns say they learned about the problem at 7:20 Tuesday morning. It took two hours before the ballot applications arrived.

Many voters stood in long lines early Tuesday while many others left. "If those people go to work and they can't come back to vote those are votes that are lost," says Jackie Cupp.

Knox County Election Commission Registrar Pat Crippens says the election officials should've checked their boxes prior to Tuesday. "When we pack supply boxes, they tell all officers to pick them up the day before elections, to take them home, go through them and to contact us."

Meanwhile, phones were ringing off the hook at election commission headquarters. Many election officers looking for supplies couldn't get through because so many voters were calling about where to vote.

"We were trying to get the information and see exactly what the holdup was and it was like...you know..." says election official Jeff Friar.

"I wanted to vote," says Leslie Allen. "I've got other things I need to do this afternoon and I won't be able to vote."

After the paperwork arrived, one challenge is getting voters back. Another is making sure the problem doesn't happen again.

"It's not the officers in charge here or the election workers here," says precinct chair Mark Cawood. "It's downtown. They just made a mistake and it should've been avoided. They should've had someone there to check these things and double check and triple check them. There's no excuse for anything like this."

Pat Crippens issued an apology for the paperwork problems. "I wanted this to be a wonderful election, which I want all of them to be. And I apologize to the public. It's an error that didn't have to happen."

At Norwood Library, election workers were also missing applications for ballots, along with a broken voting machine and a curtain missing from a machine.

The election commission says voters at precincts with missing paperwork should have been allowed to fill out fail safe forms. Those are used if a voter's name isn't on the roster, but the voter is at the right precinct.

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6 News reporter Tearsa Smith also contributed to this story.