More long lines on day 2 of early voting

 

NEW BERLIN, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A state database is overwhelmed by the crush of early voters, and local city clerks are asking voters to take their patience with them to their polling place.

Anne Dougherty voted early in New Berlin on Wednesday, Oct. 23, but it was not convenient.

"Almost two hours," she said.

We saw reports of delays in Franklin and Glendale as well. According to New Berlin City Clerk Rubina Medina, the problem is the statewide voter registration system, WisVote. Labels containing a voter's information needed for an absentee ballot are taking too long to print.

"It's taking right now 5-8 minutes to print a label, so that's what we are experiencing and that's why you are seeing the long lines," Medina said.

Medina reported wait times as long as 20-minutes to print a single label, a job that should take seconds. State Rep. Dave Maxey (R)-New Berlin says the Wisconsin Elections Commission is working on the problem, but it is an issue that could have been prevented.

"We all know when election day is, and when early voting starts so the fact that there wasn't attention paid to make sure that you had the bandwidth and sufficient server to be able to handle the load, I think it's inexcusable," he said.

For now, New Berlin is enacting what they call Plan B, which is having voters manually enter their information, bypassing the need for printing a label.

Some on social media claim that these delays are evidence of voter fraud. But Medina says this entire process has been transparent.

"We're doing our balances and checks and we're reconciling everything," she said.

CBS 58 reached out to the WEC by email today for more information on the delays with WisVote. They issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying the problem has been fixed:

"Due to higher-than-expected turnout for the first day of in-person absentee voting, the WisVote system that some clerks use experienced a period of slowness that has now been resolved. Clerks use WisVote to print a label that can be placed on the outside of in-person absentee certificate envelopes. The same information can be affixed on the outside of the envelope manually with a pen. Today’s system lag was purely related to demands on the WisVote system due to high turnout. This should not prevent any voter’s ability to vote in-person absentee today. WEC staff worked quickly to increase system capacity to ensure that clerks can continue to facilitate in-person absentee voting efficiently."