Officials: US Election Day voting is going mostly smoothly, minor obstacles overcome

US Election Day voting is unfolding largely smoothly across the nation but with scattered reports of extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems causing delays.

Most of the hiccups occurring by mid-day were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” says Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She says the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.

In swing-state Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were not allowed into some polling sites were soon resolved. A software malfunction was affecting ballot-scanning machines in the state’s Cambria County, but no one was being turned away from the polls and all ballots would be counted, county and state officials say.

A technical malfunction in Champaign County, Illinois, and challenges with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky, also delayed voting, but those issues were soon fixed and voting was back up and running.

In Missouri, flooding made one St. Louis area polling site hard to reach and knocked out power to another, requiring poll workers to turn to a generator to continue election operations. Still, in various states affected by rain, voters were enthusiastically huddling under umbrellas as they lined up to cast their ballots.

“We’ll be like post office workers: in rain or snow or sleet,” voter Mary Roszkowski says after she cast her ballot in windy Racine, Wisconsin, wiping raindrops off her face.

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says there were some reported bomb threats to polling places, but all were deemed non-credible and authorities were investigating.