Surprises at Colerain polling place

Staff writer Denise Smith Amos reports that some Colerain Township poll workers at the Colerain Community and Senior Center encountered a few surprises Tuesday morning.

An overnight storm had caused a power outage, which led to a surge, which apparently started the coffeemakers. Poll workers arrived at the community center to find the coffeemakers overflowing with hot coffee.

Later, workers began smelling smoke in the large community room where the ballot machines were. Workers checked to make sure the new machines weren’t overheating. Someone noticed smoke coming from the adjacent kitchen. A microwave had turned on after power was restored, and it was burning a cloth towel someone had left inside overnight. A voter quickly carried the microwave outdoors.

The Colerain Center serves Precinct QQ and Precinct S voters.

Precinct S mistakenly received Precinct R’s ballots, causing the new voting machines to spit out the ballots that voters had completed. About 8 a.m., correct ballots were delivered. The incorrect ballots will still be counted, poll workers said, even though the machine wouldn’t read them. Poll workers dropped the ballots into a slot on the side the machine. Those votes will be manually counted later, poll workers said.