In Gwinnett County, Georgia, four out of 156 precincts experienced prolonged technical delays during voting. In South Carolina, some voting machines lacked power or the necessary devices to activate them. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh, had some confusion as at least four polling places were changed in the last two days. Voters in Chandler, Arizona found a polling place closed due to failure to pay rent, but it was later reopened. In Houston, a worker at a polling site was removed and faced an assault charge after a racially charged dispute with a voter, according to The Houston Chronicle. Issues with voting on election day are common, and it may take days or even weeks to fully understand and address them. However, the number of calls to voting hotlines from advocacy groups has increased significantly compared to the last midterm election in 2014. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which oversees 20 election call centers, reported receiving 24,000 phone calls by 5 pm on Tuesday, compared to 14,000 calls at the same time in 2014. Certain states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, were identified as having particularly problematic voting issues. These problems may unsettle voters who are already on edge following the controversial 2016 election and concerns about Russian interference and unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud by President Donald Trump. Tensions have increased due to a contentious debate over the accessibility of voter registration, early voting, and polling sites for Americans. Election experts have noted a decrease in the protection of minority voting rights since the Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Issues such as extended hours at polling locations have arisen in multiple states, with a judge in Texas ordering nine polling locations to stay open an extra hour after complaints from civil rights organizations. Similar efforts were being made in Maricopa County, Arizona by a coalition of groups. And, in Georgia, a local judge decided to keep multiple locations in Gwinnett County open for voting, including Annistown Elementary School, where voting hours were extended by more than two hours. Additionally, a few precincts in Fulton County, which encompasses much of Atlanta, were kept open for several hours. One of these precincts was Forbes Arena, where a rally was held last Friday with Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams and former President Barack Obama. The state's election system was a major point of contention during the campaign between Abrams, who aimed to become the first African-American woman elected governor in any state, and her Republican opponent Brian Kemp, who also serves as the secretary of state and oversees the state's elections. Abrams and her supporters accused Kemp of attempting to suppress the vote through strict interpretations of state laws and procedures. Kemp argued that his intention was to prevent cheating and dismissed accusations of voter suppression as unfounded. Although there were long lines at some polling places in Georgia, other voters had a smooth experience. Kemp stated that everything had been running smoothly throughout the day and that there were no unusual issues. However, some voters had a different experience, such as those at Annistown Elementary School in Snellville, Georgia, where residents reported long lines and problems with voting machines. One voter, Ontaria Woods, said it took her nearly five hours to vote after arriving at 7 am when the polls opened. After approximately 30 to 45 minutes, election workers informed people waiting in line about a problem with the ExpressPoll voting machines, according to her. She mentioned that many people were not surprised and the term "voter suppression" was frequently mentioned. Some voters refused provisional ballots out of fear that they would not be counted, while others left to purchase food and water from Walmart. The machines were eventually fixed around 11 am, and Woods voted about 45 minutes later before going to work, several hours later than planned. Gwinnett, a diverse collection of suburbs near Atlanta, has traditionally been a Republican stronghold, but Hillary Clinton won the county in 2016. Joe Sorenson, a representative for the county government, mentioned that four precincts in Georgia had problems with the system that generates voter access cards for the electronic polling system. A judge allowed extended hours at various locations in the county, with one staying open until 9:25 pm instead of the planned 7 pm close. Bradford Berry from the NAACP emphasized the importance of ensuring that malfunctioning voting machines are not concentrated in specific areas. While some issues in Georgia seemed to be the fault of county elections officials, Abigail Collazo from Abrams' campaign blamed Kemp for the problems. Collazo praised the dedication of Georgia voters who waited in line to cast their ballots despite issues with polling locations. In Arizona, voting-rights monitors reported significant delays at some sites due to ballot printing problems. The complaints primarily focused on Maricopa County, which is the most populous county in the state. Two years ago, chaos ensued due to a transition from local polling places to regional voting centers. Voters at these centers faced issues such as being turned away or having to endure long waits because printers malfunctioned and were unable to produce ballots tailored to their home precincts. Common Cause, which was monitoring polling problems, reported these issues. According to Clarke, the problems in Maricopa County were some of the most significant seen that day and disproportionately affected minority voters. In four of the affected voting centers, minority voters such as Latinos, African-Americans, and Native Americans outnumbered white voters by a large margin. In South Carolina, the State Election Commission stated that problems with malfunctioning voting machines were limited. Chris Whitmire, a spokesperson, stated in an email that the issues were caused by human error in system preparation and had been resolved earlier in the morning. The Justice Department sent election monitors to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions received criticism from Democrats for focusing on fraud over civil rights. Common Cause President Karen Flynn expressed concern over the current political climate, noting the lack of collaboration between the Department of Justice and voter protection networks, the absence of Voting Rights Act protections, and the threatening messages from the president. In El Paso, Texas, the federal Border and Customs Protection agency cancelled a crowd-control exercise near the Mexico border following complaints of voter intimidation from civil-rights groups and Democratic leaders. The exercise was set to take place near a Latino neighborhood and a polling station used by Latino voters. Nina Perales, the voting rights legal director at the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund, described the situation as clumsy and insensitive at best, and potentially more problematic at worst. Not all issues were as severe as anticipated, as shown in a viral video from a polling site in Columbus, Ohio, where a voter appeared to select the Republican candidate for governor, Mike DeWine, on an electronic ballot but the paper record indicated a vote for DeWine's Democratic opponent, Richard Cordray. The video was posted on Facebook with claims that the machine was rigged. A representative from the Franklin County Board of Elections, Aaron Sellers, explained that a machine at the polling place had a paper jam, leading to a previous voter's paper record printing out. The voter was able to cast her ballot again on a different machine. Despite the incident being resolved, a video of it was widely circulated on Twitter by users associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory, which supports President Trump. This information was reported by the New York Times News Service in 2018.