A group of voters in the town of Hollis had to wait until 10 p.m. to cast their primary election ballots on Tuesday because of long lines, computer malfunctions and a longer than usual ballot.

Hollis voters were deciding on six ballots Tuesday, including state primaries, town elections and the $45.6 million budget for Maine School Administrative District 6, which passed 561 to 251.

Deputy Town Clerk Wendy Vachon said the computers could not process the ballots fast enough and the system froze, holding up lines.

With computer problems and more questions than usual on the ballot, Town Clerk Martha Huff said it took voters about a minute to fill them out.

“If you have 10 people in line it was a 10 minute wait. If you had 40 people in line it was a 40 minute wait … And when we had 80 people in line it was an 80 minute wait,” said Huff, who was not working at the election site on Tuesday because she was on the ballot.

More than 800 voters showed up to vote, which Huff said is about average for a regular election but may be higher for a primary.

“We have a lot of loyal voters in Hollis,” Huff said. “But some people did come out to vote on a specific issue.”

Huff said it took until midnight to tally the votes.


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