Electronic voting in Riverside County experiencing delays

Saturday was the first day of in-person voting as 130 Voter Assistance Centers opened throughout Riverside County, but the process of voting experienced several delays.

"We did see some significant volume in our voter registration look-up system and that has experienced some intermittent delays," said Riverside County spokesperson, Brooke Federico.

State Senator Melissa Melendez tweeted about the issue that afternoon.

The delays were scattered across the board, only impacting some of the centers, according to the county.

Federico explained that the system being impacted is the registration look-up system, which could confirm a voter's status in the event that they do not bring their mail-in ballot and opt to receive a new paper ballot or use the electronic voting machine.

"Because we’re having some delays with this voter registration system intermittently at different locations, some voters may be offered a provisional ballot if we’re not able to access that system," said Federico.

A volunteer at Northgate Community Church in Cathedral City told News Channel 3 that they experienced issues right after they opened at 9 a.m.

"Brought in the first 2 people, there’s a process that’s done for that. We were in that process when the system started to slow down," said volunteer, Edward Holzhauer.

Holzhauer said at the time, many people were in line as workers tried contacting information technology to get the problem resolved.

"Those that were choosing to vote electronically were having to wait or had decided to come back once we were back up and running," said Holzhauer.

"Maybe a dozen of us waited, waited, waited and then I went shopping, I came back. It’s still very slow," said voter, Enoch Ludlow.

One voter arrived to find that the line was too long.

"Got here early, long line for us here in the valley, and then went out and got coffee and came back and found out [the systems] were down," said voter, Debi Franchio.

By Saturday evening the county released an update, saying they identified the problem:

"The county team has identified the issues causing intermittent delays at our voter assistance centers. These issues are being resolved. Tomorrow, we expect all voter assistance centers to process faster, with fewer delays."

It's unclear what was causing the delays.

The county also reassured voters that there were no issues with the electronic voting machine, and that it was only connected to a printer, but not the internet.

Voter assistance centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Monday, Nov. 2. On Election Day, the voter assistance centers will operate from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters may visit any of the 130 locations. For a list of voter assistance centers and official drop off boxes, visit VoteInfo.net.

Voters can also drop off mail in ballots at Voter Assistance Centers and they will be transported to the Riverside County Registrar in a secure box.