Lone Longboat Key voting machine crashes

The lone Longboat Key voting machine at Precinct 201 in Town Hall failed at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday while tabulating Primary Election results.

More than two hours later, Precinct Clerk Charles Robbins sat at a table awaiting the arrival of a working voting machine. He looked calm.

“We’re doing fine,” he said. “It will work out.”

A replacement voting machine from a Sarasota County warehouse was on the way and should arrive around 5 p.m., Robbins said.

He estimated as many as three dozen voters may have cast ballots by hand while the machine was down. He said the voting machine malfunction should not delay tabulating votes after polls close at 7 p.m.

Four different official primary ballots were used in this election at Longboat Key: Democratic, Republican, nonpartisan and Libertarian.