One of the District’s busiest polling stations opening late was among the problems that marked the city’s special election voting on Tuesday.
The precinct captain at Shepherd Park Elementary School in Ward 4 misplaced her checklist for opening the busy precinct’s voting machines and kept the doors closed until 7:15 a.m., D.C. board of elections spokeswoman Alysoun McLaughlin said. Polls were supposed to open at 7 a.m. McLaughlin said the captain should have opened the doors and allowed voters to cast paper ballots rather than keeping the doors closed.
“She felt really bad about it,” McLaughlin said. Poll watchers told McLaughlin that about 10 voters left when they found the doors closed. The precinct captain, McLaughlin said, believes some of those voters returned later.
McLaughlin said there’s also some concern that voters might have left Houston Elementary School without casting a ballot because they were confused by a change in the entrance to the Ward 7 precinct.
Voters typically enter through the front door, which is kept open, she said. But the school’s principal closed the front door on Tuesday for security purposes, requiring voters to buzz to get into polling station.
“They’ve been coming in that front door forever,” McLaughlin said.
Workers at the precinct put up signs directing voters to alternative entrance typically used by disabled voters that was open after realizing there might be confusion, she said.
The lists of registered voters were switched between a Foggy Bottom precinct and a Glover Park precinct, McLaughlin said. Voters who arrived before the mix-up was fixed were given paper “special ballots” that will be counted only after the elections board verifies the voter’s registration.
