BREAKING: ‘Widespread’ Voting Machine Outages Reported In Critical Swing County

Election officials in a critical Pennsylvania swing county are reporting “widespread” outages of electronic voting machines Tuesday morning, leading to long lines at the polls that threaten to leave voters heading home in disgust.

WJAC reported that machines are down at precincts across Cambria County, which sits about 82 miles to the east of Pittsburgh. The NBC affiliate spoke with multiple voters who reported showing up to their polling places only to be told that their votes couldn’t be accepted until the situation was resolved, though some precincts are reportedly taking down votes on paper ballots and storing them in a vault to be counted at a later time. Others, however, are telling voters to go home and try again later in the day. Similar outages are being reported 65 miles south in Bedford County where officials told the outlet they are working to bring the machines back online and confirmed that voters are casting their votes on paper ballots for now.

(VOTE: Should ’60 Minutes’ Be Investigated For Deceptively Editing Kamala Interview?)

In a statement to the Tribune-Democrat, local election officials said, “The Cambria County Board of Elections took measures to have IT specialists called to review the software issue. There is a process in place for issues of this nature.” Board members added that they are not discouraging voters from arriving and voting while the issue is addressed. “All completed ballots will be accepted, secured and counted by the board of elections,” the message said. “The County Board of Elections has expressed voting machines at precinct locations to continue to allow voting electronically, while still allowing hand ballots to be cast. The county board of elections will be continuing to monitor this issue and take any necessary action to ensure that all voters have an opportunity to cast their ballots.”

The board is also seeking to extend the voting time past 8 p.m. on Tuesday across Cambria County, home to more than 130,000 Pennsylvanians. One of them, Christine Miller, said she and her husband Mark arrived at their polling location in Geistown only to learn that their vote wouldn’t be accepted. “I put my ballot in the machine and it said it couldn’t read it,” she told the outlet, describing how the machine refused to ingest her paper ballot. She tried to insert it a different way but got the same result. In response, an election worker told her to place the paper ballot in a secure area within the voting machine and promised it would be counted later.

The presidential election may hinge on Pennsylvania, which polls show could go for either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. Vote-by-mail numbers coming in Monday indicated that Republican enthusiasm for voting early has diminished Democrats’ lead while the Republican National Committee reported winning a standoff with election officials who initially denied Republican poll waters entry to polling locations. President Trump spent the eve of Election Day at a rally in Pittsburgh where he promised a “golden age” for America if elected and announced that Joe Rogan had endorsed him, Axios reported.

(CHAOS: Costco Sells Out Of Gold Bars As Economic Uncertainty Grips Markets)