Fumes force evacuation of Portsmouth High polling site

Site moved to new gym across street, voting extended

By Jim McGaw
Posted 11/6/18

PORTSMOUTH — An “electrical burning smell” forced the evacuation of the Portsmouth High School polling site shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, forcing scrambling poll workers to …

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Fumes force evacuation of Portsmouth High polling site

Site moved to new gym across street, voting extended

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — An “electrical burning smell” forced the evacuation of the Portsmouth High School polling site shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, forcing scrambling poll workers to quickly move voting machines, ballot cubicles and other equipment to the school’s new gym. 

Due to the interruption, Registrar of Voters Jacqueline Schulz received permission from the R.I. Board of Elections to extend the polling hours of that precinct (No. 2704) to 9 p.m. The normal time for the polls to close was 8 p.m.

“I can extend it for the length of time that we’ve been out. It ended at 6:34 (p.m.), so I have an hour and a half,” Ms. Schulz said as she hurriedly helped volunteers unplug machines before moving the polling place next door.

Around 7:20 p.m., about 30 voters and poll workers were seen outside the old gym in the rain while firefighters were inside trying to find the source of the smell. Several fans were going to air out the fumes, and firefighters had a ladder up in one corner of the room so they could get a closer inspection of the walls and ceilings.

By 7:42 p.m., the new polling site was "up and running," the Canvassing Authority posted on its Facebook page.

Town Council President Keith Hamilton, who retained his seat Tuesday, arrived at the high school to vote around 6:30 p.m. when the site was evacuated.

“It looks like the heating unit or something mechanical may have malfunctioned on the roof,” said Mr. Hamilton, who praised the efforts of Ms. Schulz and poll workers to quickly relocate equipment so the voting process could continue with minimal interruption.

Island makes CNN

The other polling glitch reported Tuesday was a malfunction of the only voting machine on Prudence Island. 

Although the problem was quickly corrected, the incident somehow made its way to CNN, which made national copy of the story.

Ms. Schulz was shaking her head about how such a minor incident made national news. After all, Prudence Island has only 177 registered voters.

“All we had was a DS200 (voting machine). It wasn’t operational,” she said. “We did our communications. The police took over the new DS200, which was already available, and they were up and running again. By 9 o’clock (a.m.), everything was all set.”

The machine was taken over on a speedy police boat and not the ferry, she noted. “It didn’t take us any time to get it over there,” said Ms. Schulz, adding that voting was interrupted for less than an hour.

Turnout very high

Voters came to the polls in impressive numbers Tuesday.

“It’s very strong,” Ms. Schulz said of voter turnout. 

“2014 was 51 percent. We’re at 45 percent now and people are still coming out,” she said at about 6:25 p.m.

The Canvassing Authority has its own Facebook page and posted periodic updates throughout the day.

“We’re trying to stay in communication with people because there’s so much incorrect information. It’s not malicious, it’s just not right,” she said.

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.