Polling stations in Bell County allowed to remain open extra hour to make up for early-morning glitches

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - A Texas district court on Tuesday allowed the Bell County Elections Office to keep polling stations open until 8 p.m. Tuesday after some machines experienced problems that delayed voting Tuesday morning.

“This morning, 8 of Bell County’s 42 Voting Centers experienced synchronization issues with the check-in systems. This issue led to delays in the opening of those facilities and long waits for some voters. To ensure that every Bell County voter is given the opportunity to cast their ballot, the Bell County Elections Office has requested and been allowed to extend voting hours county-wide until 8:00 p.m.,” the county wrote in a news release.

The machines that experienced problems were operating without any problems later in the morning, Bell County Public Information Officer James Stafford confirmed to KWTX.

Bell County Elections staff were experiencing technical difficulties at a few polling sites early Tuesday morning after discovering issues with their check-in machines related to this weekend’s time change. The issue did not affect the voting machine’s tabulator, the county said.

KWTX received reports of numerous locations around Bell County experiencing the same issues.

Voters can check for wait times at //BellCountyTX.com/Voting.

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