Oklahoma falls short in record turnout

Oklahoma voters apparently will fall short of setting a record turnout for Tuesday’s general election, early election results show.

It appeared about 1.4 million Oklahomans voted in the general election, which will be just shy of the 1.46 million voters who turned out for the 2004 presidential election, said Michael Clingman, state Election Board secretary.

A turnout of 1.4 million voters would represent about 64 percent of the state’s registered voters casting ballots.

Clingman based his projection with about 40 percent of the state’s 2,231 precincts reporting at 9:15 p.m. Tuesday. Some of the larger urban precincts in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties had yet to be counted.

Clingman earlier this week said it was possible voter turnout in Tuesday’s election could reach 1.5 million, but that the turnout could be close to the 2004 figures.

No major problems were reported during Tuesday’s election, he said.

Several optical scan machines malfunctioned in polling precincts across the state, he said.

“We had a few that had to be swapped out, but those were done within 15 to 20 minutes from what I’ve heard,” Clingman said.

Any disruption should have been minor because voters could place their ballots in secure emergency bins while the scanners were not in service. Precinct workers inserted the ballots after the problem was fixed or a new scanner was put in place.

Election officials had spare machines ready because Oklahoma’s optical scan system is 14 years old, Clingman said.

“Sometimes it was just a paper jam that you have to go out and clear,” he said.