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Posted: 10:58 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012

Tulsa's Election Headquarters

Voter turnout huge, long lines at Tulsa polling places

Long line at a Tulsa precinct, Nov. 6, 2012
Long line at a Tulsa precinct, Nov. 6, 2012

By Russell Mills

TULSA, Okla. —

Long lines formed at Tulsa area polling places Tuesday as one of the more contentious political campaign seasons in American history draws to a close.

By late morning, the Tulsa County Election Board reported few problems. Those that did crop up primarily had to do with voting machines which jammed.

Election officials say simply powering the machines off and back on appeared to be working.

One other snag some voters hit was arriving at a polling place to find they no longer vote there.

The state's county commission, legislative, and congressional districts were redistricted last year, meaning some precinct lines were redrawn.

And KRMG has received complaints about long, slow-moving lines.

One woman told us she voted at a location in Niehaus Park near Lynn Lane and E. 51st St.  that had two precincts, one from Tulsa and one from Broken Arrow.

"There were several volunteers at the table for the other precinct, and at our precinct table, there was two people but only one was checking I.D. and so forth."

She says the other volunteers basically stood there and did nothing.

We heard a similar story from another voter who cast her ballot at an elementary school in Sand Springs, who told us there were several volunteers at the precinct, but only one checking people in while the others stood about and did nothing.

"She did not know what she was doing, she was very slow, and she kept saying 'I'm very sorry, this is only my second time doing this.'"

Other than that, the voting seems to have gone fairly smoothly, although a number of voters did report long waits in line.

"An hour and 45 minutes from the time we walked in the door to the time we got our ballots filled out," one man told KRMG, although the wait at most precincts has averaged more like 20 to 30 minutes.

KRMG will have live, continuous election coverage beginning with the KRMG Afternoon News with Dan Potter at 5 p.m. and ending some time Wednesday morning, assuming a decision appears clear in the electoral college.

 
 
 

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