Voting Delayed at 3 Dearborn Precincts When Polling Laptops Arrive Late

Delivery of new laptops to Dearborn's 50 voting precincts caused three to get a late start to the Aug. 7 primaries, the Dearborn City Clerk's office confirmed Tuesday.

Elections Supervisor Cindy Galea told Patch that her team was charged with dropping off and setting up the laptops for poll workers, which were being used to check in voters for the first time in Dearborn's voting history. However, she said, they weren't fully ready as the 7 a.m. voting start time approached.

"We were running a little behind," she explained.

As a result, when voters were ready to cast their ballots at three of Dearborn's precincts, the precincts were not ready.

Voters were asked to wait or come back later in the day. But those who are not able to come back have another option, too.

The clerk's office is also offering to hand deliver an absentee ballot today to voters who cannot return to the polls.

Dearborn City Clerk Kathy Buda told Channel 7 Tuesday morning that her office was allowing voters who were unable to vote this morning because of the laptop delay to request hand delivery of absentee ballots to their homes.

Those voters are asked to call the City Clerk's election line at 313-943-2030.

Gallea said the issue was minor, but "our poll workers got a little flustered," she explained.

Workers at Precincts 31 and 32 at Dearborn's said they had a line of around 10 people waiting to vote at 7 a.m., but the laptops did not arrive at their location until after 7:30 a.m.

"It was stressful," one poll worker said, adding that several people had already come back to vote. The location had tallied around 130 ballots as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.

"It's been very steady," she told Patch. "Not too many giant rushes, and not too many lulls."