The Los Angeles Times is reporting that many of the ballot stations in Los Angeles County were not set up when polls officially opened at 7:30 a.m., and many voters were turned away or had to wait in lines for hours.
One Sherman Oaks polling station was still closed at 10 a.m., and dozens who had made it there were turned away. The Times also explained that, in Malibu at Fire Station 99, many waited as long as four hours, prompting them to express their frustration on social media.
Adding insult to injury, at the Eastmont Community Center in East L.A., the one voting machine available broke down, and workers had to manually insert ballots. But there was no reason to fret, according to precinct inspector Elizabeth Mendez, because only thirty people had come in to vote by 12:30 p.m., so the process wasn’t that arduous.
Elizabeth Knox, a spokeswoman for the county Registrar-Recorder/Clerk’s office, explained that there were problems at other polling areas, including Venice. Moreover, there were major worker shortages in Sherman Oaks, Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Glendora, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Studio City, Valencia, and all beach cities.
“It is messy, unfortunately,” Knox said. “It doesn’t feel right to the voters, because everybody expects something to be up.”