Back to the ballot box: Electronic voting scanners down across Mercer County

A Dominion ballot scanner in Mercer County. The scanners aren’t working, so voters must submit their paper ballots. Photo: Scott Miller, Exit 7A Creative Services and Studios.

Your vote will still be counted if you vote in Mercer County today. But you will need to place your ballot in a slot instead of scanning it. The electronic voting scanners are down across the county.

“No voter should walk away. They can vote manually. No one will be disenfranchised and we are working on fixing the issue at present but we don’t know exactly why,” Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello said. “It may delay results, but we will make sure everyone votes.”

Sollami Covello said Dominion voting machine scanners are not reading votes throughout the county. She said voters can still cast votes manually. There is a slot on the top of the scanner for ballots. “We are asking poll workers to use the official ballots because voters can still vote manually, and place them in the slot in the scanning machines. We will count them manually.”

Dominion representatives and other IT professionals are coming to Mercer County to fix the problem, Sollami Covello said.

“We have many provisional ballots back in the County Clerk’s Office safe, and poll workers are trained to call us if they need more,” Sollami Covello said.

The polls are open until 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Full election results will not be available Tuesday night because of the issue.