It was not as bad as Bridgeport, but two Valley towns — Oxford and Derby — ran out of ballots Tuesday.
Officials attributed the shortages to high voter turnout and spoiled ballots.
The shortages caused delays getting officials results.
Derby
Derby ordered 3,800 ballots, and had about 3,500 voters turn out Tuesday. But there were enough mistakes on ballots throughout the day to result in shortages.
“If they make a mistake, they have to use another one,” said Derby’s town clerk, Laura Wabno.
That means several people used more than one ballot Tuesday.
“It’s all computerized now. If there’s an error on the ballot, you can’t erase it,” Wabno said. “It’s not like the old days with the switches.”
There are about 6,600 registered voters in Derby.
One polling place — Bradley School — ran out of ballots just after 7 p.m., according to Democratic Registrar of Voters Louise Pitney.
Derby was 39 ballots short — and had to make photo copies of ballots to continue. Those ballots had to then be hand counted at the end of the night.
Oxford
In Oxford, the process was similar.
After running out of ballots at about 7 p.m., Oxford poll workers copied ballots so the process could continue.
“This is the first time we have ever run out of ballots in Oxford,” said town Clerk Margaret West.
Oxford ordered 5,000 ballots, based on previous gubernatorial turnout figures of about 4,600.
But 5,150 people voted in Oxford Tuesday — and more needed multiple ballots after mis-marking their originals.
Oxford has about 8,300 registered voters.
“There’s a first time for everything,” West said.
Ballot Orders
Ansonia, Seymour and Shelton made it through the election with plenty of ballots, officials in those towns said Wednesday.
Shelton ordered enough ballots to cover 110 percent of the voters — just in case all registered voters came out, and some messed up their ballots, according to Registrar of Voters Peter Pavone.
Only about 57.3 percent of Shelton’s registered voters went to the polls Tuesday, Pavone said. That’s a number higher than normal.
“In past years on gubernatorial races, the most we’ve had was 53 percent,” Pavone said.
In Ansonia, voting officials ordered enough ballots to cover 75 percent of the registered voters. Only 53 percent showed up to polls.
In Seymour, the Republican Registrar of Voters, Elise Wood, said they averted a shortfall by basing their order on the presidential turnout.
The presidential turnout had been heavy, with 80 percent of the town’s 9,500 voters going to the polls.
So for the midterm election, “we ordered enough ballots for 75 percent of the total voters,” Woods said.
The turnout was 59 percent, so there were ballots to spare.
“Running out of ballots on Election Day is everybody’s nightmare,” Woods said.
