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Ballot issues reported in Stanislaus County on election night

Before the polls closed on election night, there were some polling places in Stanislaus County that ran out of provisional envelopes.

STANISLAUS COUNTY, Calif. -- Before the polls closed on election night, there were some polling places in Stanislaus County that ran out of provisional envelopes. This sparked a last-minute attempt to keep the polls open late, past 8 p.m.

"We had a large, enthusiastic turnout of voters," Donna Linder, the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters Elect said.

That's why Linder says they started to run out of those hot pink provisional envelopes for ballots.

"By about 6 p.m., we were starting to get reports that polling places were completely out of provisional ballot envelopes and the registrar's office was not delivering anymore. They'd been waiting an hour, the registrar's office was telling them there weren't anymore, and then we started hearing that polling places were turning voters away," Lisa Battista, a volunteer for the Democratic party said.

Battista, a volunteer and local attorney, said after her team of observers noticed this happening at almost a dozen polling locations, they took action.

"We local attorneys decided to file an emergency motion to keep the polls open later, to give a little extra time to resolve this problem, figure out how to allow more people to vote," she said.

They brought in a judge for a last-minute hearing, who denied this motion. Meaning the polls still closed at 8 p.m.

"They were not approaching this election with the goal in mind that everyone got to vote," she said.

Battista says at the time of the hearing, they only had proof of three voters that weren't able vote, but she believes there were many more.

"I am certain that it was a significant number. The phone calls were coming in and reports of these were coming in faster than I could even write them down," she said.

ABC10 took these concerns back to the county. Linder said she was not aware of any voters that were turned away because of this issue. She also said they were able to deliver more envelopes across the county.

"Provisional envelopes were deployed to the polling locations through several different people and then, if you were at that polling location, you were still given the opportunity to vote," Linder said.

But as for future elections...

"We'll just need to stock up on more of the provisional envelopes," she said.

Meanwhile, Stanislaus County is continuing to process each and every ballot. They told ABC10 on Wednesday, they still have thousands more to be counted. Legally, they have until December 6 to finish and certify the final results.

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