YORK COUNTY, Pa. — Several polling locations in York County ran out of ballots during voting on Tuesday.
According to York County officials, several locations ran out of ballots on May 18, including Nashville Fire Company in Spring Grove and Eastern York High School in Lower Windsor Township.
Officials say ballots at these locations have since been replenished, and other locations have been using the ADA touch screen machines and provisional ballots to allow people to vote.
York County Commissioner Julie Wheeler said, "it's unacceptable that this has happened. We are going to look at what the root causes are, and changes are going to be made."
The ballots that ran out were both Republican and Democrat primary ballots, Wheeler said. A majority of the reports received by FOX43 were of Republican ballot shortages.
Some voters reported waiting hours to vote. Officials at the Monaghan Township polling place said they had run out ballots for about two hours before getting more.
“They told us we could wait in line. It would take at least 45 minutes when I got in,” said Elisabeth Rhon of Monaghan Township.
A voter in Lower Windsor Township, Wayne Geesey, said he returned multiple times to their polling place over three and a half hours.
“[I returned] three times,” Geesey said. “It’s my right to vote so why are you taking my right from me? If you don’t have a ballot for me, you’ve taken my right from me. There’s something wrong there.”
The Pennsylvania Department of State said voters could use the ballot-marking device to cast their ballot or cast their vote using ballots on hand for provisional voting.
But even those ran out in some places.
“I actually was the last one with the paper one. The paper ran out after mine,” Rhon said.
Officials said they planned to launch an investigation on Wednesday.
“It’s unacceptable that this has happened and we are going to look at what the root causes are and changes will be made,” Wheeler said.
Because of the ballot issues, the York County Republican Committee asked a county judge to extend voting hours. However that request was denied and the polls closed at the normal time, 8 p.m.
In a 9 p.m. election update, State Department officials said the ballot shortages were mostly contained to York County.
This is a developing story. FOX43 will provide updates as they become available.