The hold of the US on its first-world status is losing traction when election officials run out of paper and are forced to delay the closing of the polls. But this is exactly what happened on Tuesday in Luzerne County in Pennsylvania. A judge intervened and ordered that the hours of voting be extended for two hours and moved the closing time from 8 pm to 10 pm.
Similar issues with paper were reported in at least 12 locations across Texas.
Judge Lesa S. Gelb of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas wrote:
…the constitutional right to vote requires an extension of the voting hours after after the county’s voters, through no fault of their own, were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote.
The decision was made swiftly after officials from the election submitted an emergency petition in which they wrote:
Upon arriving at the polling locations to set up machines on Election Day poll workers at the Luzerne County polling locations discovered that the voting machines were seriously deficient of paper to print out the ballot after the voter uses the machine to vote.
Officials also said that some voters were unable to stand in line for long enough and had to leave the polling place. Officials stated:
In the immediate instance electors of Luzerne County may be deprived of their opportunity to participate because of circumstances beyond their control if the time for closing polls is not extended.
Alec Ryncavage, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania's state representative in the 119th Legislative District, is anticipating problems ahead, according to the Times Leader in Pennsylvania: “Candidates won’t know who won by the end of the night,” he said. “This election also may be open to lawsuits.”
Reporter Holly Hansen reported that similar issues were afflicting Texas:
Latest: at least 12 locations in #HarrisCounty #Houston are out of paper needed to print ballots. Some have been waiting for hours for paper & turning voters away. #Election2022
This is shocking to have happened in the United States of America in 2022.
One person tweeted, “So how can they run out of paper when they're supposed to know how many registered voters are in the county? I don't get it.”
That's the most obvious issue. What was the reason they didn't have enough papers? Is this a sign there will be endless lawsuits and delays in the results of the elections? It appears to be.
