Outage delays some voting (11/02/04)

A tree limb that fell on an electrical line in Pennville this morning knocked out power to about 900 customers in and around the town and temporarily halted voting at two precincts.

The outage was reported just after 7 a.m. and affected voting in Pennville and Knox Township.

The affected polling sites were at Oak Grove Church, 829 South Ind. 1, Dunkirk, and the Pennville Community Building in Pennville Park, Jay County clerk Jane Ann Runyon said this morning.

Voting was delayed for about half an hour, while battery packs for the four voting machines were taken to the polling sites. No other problems were reported at those sites this morning, Runyon said.

Power was restored by about 9 a.m., a spokesperson for Indiana Michigan Power said at mid-morning.

Line workers from Indiana Michigan Power discovered a tree limb on an electrical line at the intersection of Washington and Harrison streets on the south side of Pennville. A report of a wire down in another area of Pennville was found to be a phone line.

A total of 912 customers were without power for about two hours.

Also affected was Pennville Elementary School. An official from the Jay School Corporation said that Pennville students were bused to West Jay Middle School and were expected to remain at West Jay until after lunch.

If power remains on in Pennville, the students were expected to be taken back to Pennville Elementary for the remainder of the school day.

Also this morning, one of the two voting machines at the Wayne 1 precinct at the Moose Lodge in Portland failed. Voting continued with the other machine until the failed unit was replaced.

Runyon reported few other problems this morning, other than people trying to cast ballots at the wrong polling site and some electioneering too close to the Wayne 4 poll site at the Jay Community Center in Portland.

The voters at the wrong polls were directed to the correct precincts, she said. Questions over voter registration also resulted in a few provisional ballots being cast, and “that’s a first for us,” Runyon said.[[In-content Ad]]