Atmore officials were able to head off what could have been a much larger problem Tuesday morning when an unforeseen complication delayed the beginning of voting for residents casting their ballots in the District 4 and 5 city council runoff races.

The delay arose when poll workers opened their packets and found the wrong voter lists inside.

Despite the misue, City Clerk Becca Smith the problem was resolved in around ten minutes.

“The packets were mislabeled by the board of registrars,” Smith said. “But it was no big deal and we got the right ones right over.”
Smith said alternate copies were available at city hall, but said the mislabeling was on a blip on the radar for what was otherwise a smooth day of voting.

Poll workers at both stations said only three voters decided to leave at each location, stating that would come back later in the day.

Smith said there are back up plans for problems with polling information, including a system where voters can show poll workers their identification and the worker will then verify the address with officials at city hall.