HORN LAKE, Miss. — Problems at a DeSoto County, Mississippi polling place led to 35 voters getting paper ballots Tuesday morning.

When poll workers arrived at Horn Lake Fire Station No. 3, they say one machine was not plugged in. Poll workers had to figure out the problem.

A manager at that location said the paper ballots were put into the secure lock box under the voting machine, and she would take them out at the end of the day and scan them in. 

When the computer that scans voters into the system was back up and running, she said she went through and marked those who voted with a paper ballot off the list so they could not vote again.

While we were there, we talked to Jasper Kennedy who showed up after the issue was fixed. However, he still had to use a paper ballot because his name couldn’t be located on the list of eligible voters.

“You just had to make your mark fold it up and put it in the envelope it was pretty simple and straightforward,” Kennedy said.

He said despite the ease of using the paper ballot, he would have felt his vote was more secure if he were able to use the computer like everyone else.

“Felt a little weird about it. I have never voted like that before I have never had an issue before. it is kind of strange that all of a sudden now I am having an issue but I am just going to pray that everything is going to be okay,” Kennedy said.

Things were running smoothly by later in the morning.

In Shelby County, Elections Administrator Linda Phillips said she hadn’t received reports of major problems Tuesday.

“No significant issues were reported. From our perspective, the machines have been performing optimally. We’ll continue to monitor all voting locations throughout the day,” Phillips said.

Fifty people were inadvertently given the wrong ballot at a Berclair polling location during early voting before the mistake was discovered Oct. 31. Phillips blamed the problem on a clerical error.