4 Voting Precincts in Kentucky Shut Down After Potential Gas Leak
A natural gas leak led to the temporary closure Tuesday of a Jefferson County, Kentucky, polling place in which voters of four voting precincts cast ballots.
Due to the closing, the polls at Highland Baptist Church remained open until 6:30 p.m. instead of the usual closing time of 6 p.m., according to WLKY-TV.
One other polling place in Jefferson County — Blue Lick Elementary School — was also open an extra 30 minutes. Voting at that location had been halted for about 30 minutes due to a police pursuit near the polling place.
The Blue Lick shutdown impacted voting precincts 141 and 145. The voting precincts affected by the church closing were L170, L171, L203 and L219.
In a world skeptical of the conduct of elections, some posted their suspicions on social media.
“Notice how this only occurs in Democratic areas on important election nights?” one poster wrote on social media.
Chris Whelan, a representative of Louisville Gas & Electric, said the incident was genuine, according to the Associated Press.
Whelan said there was a report of gas coming from a stove located in the church.
Gas was, in fact, found, but not at a high enough level to be hazardous. The gas dissipated once the stove was turned off, Whelan said.
“This was a legitimate instance of a gas leak so any claims otherwise, we just think are patently absurd,” Erran Huber of the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office said.
Huber said during the extra half-hour at the two polling sites, only one vote was cast.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, through 4 p.m., 57 voting-related complaints had been filed with the state Attorney General’s Office. Of those, 21 came from Jefferson County.
In one incident, Louisville Metro Police arrested Jacen Cockerell, who was charged with two counts of menacing, one count of tampering, destruction of a voting machine and one count of interfering with election.
Cockerell was accused of “wielding a flag attached to a fishing pole and allegedly was making threatening gestures towards voters,” LMPD representative Matt Sanders said.
Sanders said one voting machine was damaged and one person was prevented from voting.
On Tuesday, Kentucky voters re-elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who defeated Republican challenger Daniel Cameron.
Elsewhere on Election Day, a voting machine glitch in Pennsylvania led to a situation in which, in one contest, votes cast for one candidate were logged as being cast for a rival.
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