What caused voting delays, issues on Election Day in Louisville?

As he stared at a frozen, sputtering screen on the early morning of Election Day, Jefferson County poll worker Ryan Easton felt a sense of dread unfurl in the pit of his stomach.

About 10 minutes before the polls officially opened, he and other volunteers had already began to suspect something was awry with their equipment. They had run the usual tests to verify the voter check-in system functioned properly — but instead of the machines running as normal, the electronic pollbooks began to lock up and freeze.

"We kind of hoped it was a bug and started resetting," Easton said.

But when the first voter arrived at their polling spot at St. Mark's Episcopal Church as soon as the clock struck 6 a.m., Easton knew the malfunction was far from an isolated incident.

The scanning of voters' driver licenses, for proof of identification, wouldn't work. Then, even after a poll worker would make it to the next step, the machine would stall while pulling up the voter's proof of registration and address. The poll worker would eventually have to reboot the equipment entirely after about five to six people made it through the system.

For a process that normally takes about 45 seconds, each person's check-in that morning took — at best, by Easton's estimates — three to six minutes, causing a line to quickly form out the door.

"That's the first time I've ever even seen that," said Easton, who has worked the polls locally since 2020.

Winding lines and staggering wait times at multiple polling locations countywide led to widespread frustrations early Tuesday, with some voters leaving before they cast their ballots.

Two groups filed a lawsuit aimed at keeping the polls open later, but a judge ruled against the plaintiffs, saying they had not proved any voters were denied the right to vote.

Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw has since apologized for the issues, blaming them on the massive rise in early voting.

The clerk said she's now focused on making sure the problems don't happen again.

"I was just heartsick on Tuesday," Holsclaw said after the election. "Because we’ve always had such smooth sailing and then for this to happen?"

According to Holsclaw, the technical issue with the voter ID machines arose after the clerk's office's system downloaded a significant amount of early voting data before polls opened.

Similar to a narrow pipeline, the system couldn't handle downloading that much information at once, resulting in a clog that jammed up the electronic pollbooks at several polling sites.

While the total voter turnout in Jefferson County was fairly normal for a presidential election year — though Holsclaw said the overall 2024 turnout was less than 2020 — a staggering increase in early voters presented an unprecedented challenge for the county's equipment.

According to the clerk's office, more than 136,000 people voted early in Jefferson County — representing about 38% of the total ballots cast in the election.

The office's equipment was from a vendor, Election Systems & Software, and had been used in the past three elections. While Holsclaw said no similar issues "even on a small scale" were ever brought to her attention before Tuesday, Easton said he remembers minor, intermittent performance issues during the 2023 gubernatorial primary, the first election the new equipment was used.

Easton said he and other poll workers provided feedback to the clerk's office after that day, and the issues did not show up again — until Tuesday.

A representative from Election Systems & Software was eventually able to figure out the issue Tuesday, Holsclaw said, and it was resolved at Easton's polling site by about 10 a.m.

While the issue was still active, Easton said he saw some voters getting out of line and leaving. Though some came back later in the day, he said he couldn't be sure that all of them returned.

In an interview with The Courier Journal, Holsclaw apologized for the lengthy wait times but said she was thrilled that so many people in Jefferson County came out to vote, despite the technical issues.

Only the voter ID system, which verifies a person's identity as well as whether they've already voted, was impacted. No cast ballot or ID verification was compromised due to the issue, Holsclaw said.

Holsclaw said the voting equipment will function smoothly in a "normal election" that has less of a surge in turnout typically experienced in a presidential year.

Still, "we're trying our best to make sure the issue that was Tuesday won't happen again," she said. "I don't know how that's going to come about, but we certainly will study it and try to make it better.”

Holsclaw said she has planned to meet with her entire election staff to brainstorm future paths to take.

"We are open to changing vendors. I think the vendor understands that at this point," Holsclaw said. "But keep in mind, you know, this is very, very costly."

New equipment would cost "way over a million dollars," Holsclaw said, but if elected officials allocate needed funds, she would be open to the change.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, who votes in Jefferson County, expressed frustration over how things played out on Election Day but commended the county clerk's office for being "solution-oriented."

Adams said he is also interested in seeing how the local voting process could be tweaked in the future, including potentially opening up more centers where voters aren't restricted to visiting just one polling site.

Another option, he said, is to have a law requiring poll workers to boot their equipment up a certain number of hours before the polls open to act as a buffer for potential troubleshooting or download time constraints.

"Obviously, I'd hate to ask the legislature to make a law based on one county versus 119 others," Adams said. "But it might be good just for down the road. You don't want some other county making the same mistake."

After a grueling, frustrating day at the polls, Easton said he briefly reconsidered his role as a poll worker in future Jefferson County elections on his drive home that night.

"I don't plan to stop doing it, because again, the need is still there for people to work in those positions and to facilitate the elections," Easton said.

Reach reporter Rachel Smith [email protected] or @RachelSmithNews on X, formerly known as Twitter.