By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Despite low turnout and new electronic voting machines, St. Louis city election officials did not get all the ballots from Tuesday's election counted until well after midnight.
They had hoped to get things wrapped up by 9 p.m. But Republican election director Scott Leiendecker says judges at four precincts left before staff could come around and pick up the machines' memory cards.
"The judges had left and the polling places were locked, so we had to call the building manager or the school [and] get back out there," Leiendecker said. "So we didn't have some precincts back here until one in the morning."
Leiendecker says it also took workers a bit longer than expected to go through the machines' shut-down protocol. But the new equipment worked as it was supposed to.
He says those logistical problems will be worked out by the August primary, when larger turnout is expected.