It was a late start for voters in Wilson County after issues with its marking machines prompted a brief delay.
All 31 polling locations are equipped with ExpressVote, a printer device that allows voters to mark their votes, receive a ballot back for a second review and slipped into a ballot machine where it is cast.
The county experienced no problems throughout early voting but on the start of Election Day, the machines were not able to read the bar codes on the ballots.
"It's one of those things that you can't test until polls open," Wilson County Administrator of Election Commission Phillip Warren told NewsChannel 5.
Many voters were taken by surprise and expressed concerns to NewsChannel 5.
The problem lasted for approximately 25 minutes as officials and technicians instructed poll workers to go to plan B. That meant voters had to wait in line longer or had to return due to work.
To resolve the issue, the county removed bar codes and for the poll workers to manually choose the ballot on the screen.
"It's one step we had to add to the voting process that we didn't anticipate, everything's good now," Warren said. "There votes will be counted."
It turns out some voters were able to cast their votes with the bar code but could not be processed through the ballot machine.
Warren said the paper ballots will be counted by the absentee board later.
Voting was back to normal by 8 a.m. Polls will still close at 7 p.m.
