LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County's top election official said Wednesday there was "no way" to prevent the Election Day technical issues that caused voters at some precincts to wait in line for hours.

County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw said she was pleased with turnout — nearly 358,000 in total — but lamented "some moments that were not so great."

The problem centered around system that scans voters' IDs before they're handed a ballot had to upload the information from the approximately 113,000 early voters, a safety feature designed to prevent voter fraud. Ashley Tinius, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Clerk's Office, said Tuesday that some workers didn't power up their machines until the polls open, and they can take awhile to come online.

"The WiFi could not carry all of the data that was going through there. That was the problem," Holsclaw said Wednesday. "Once the equipment was turned back off and restarted, it went fine. But unfortunately, it took awhile to get to that point, to try to understand what was happening."

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said Wednesday that one of the biggest issues arose at polling locations that served multiple precincts and thus housed higher-than-average early voter data. 

"The problem is they weren't turned on early enough to boot, to process, to get the many, many thousands of people downloaded from the cloud into the e-poll books," Adams said. "And we had no problem like that in 119 other counties. They all got in early enough and turned these on early enough and had no issues, including the other counties that use the same e-poll book vendor."

Holsclaw said the size of Jefferson County and the large number of early, in-person votes caused a unique problem.

"I don't think (Adams) totally understands some of that because, for one thing, those e-poll books are sent out the weekend before," she said. "In Jefferson, the county is so large we don't have the good fortune of sending them out the day of or the day before. There's so many locations — because we do open all precincts on Election Day — there's no way we would be able to do that and test that equipment in those few hours.

The best way to fix the issue moving forward, Adams said, may be to pass legislation requiring equipment be turned on several hours — or even the day before Election Day.

"It'd be very difficult for here in Jefferson with as many precincts as we have — close to impossible, really," Holsclaw said.

Michael Clancey, who's been a poll worker in Jefferson County for several years, said he had "no idea" there would be any downloads or issues when poll workers began their day.

"We had the e-poll books turning on by 5:30, 20 to six in the morning," he said. "... Things were really lagging, to the point that you'd touch a key and we'd touch it several times to get it going again and it would lock it up."

Clancey said poll workers are trained to show up to their assigned locations at 5:15 a.m. and he would have been willing to show up earlier had he known the issues ahead. 

"To say if the poll workers had turned it on sooner everything would've been OK was not accurate and a little offensive," he said, referring to a comment from the clerk's office Tuesday morning saying some workers didn't power up their machines until the polls opened.

Holsclaw said she learned some lessons from this and now knows the e-poll books will have to be checked in future years.

"I was never faced with that before and I assume responsibility for that. ... I'm not trying to run from that," she said. "It wasn't every polling location that had that problem. I apologize to everybody for it. But these things happen and I don't make excuses for them."

Clancey said system issues began improving around noon, and voters were very understanding. He said he'll be glad to serve as a poll worker in future elections.

Adams sat down with WDRB Mornings early Wednesday.

'Upholding the integrity of the election'

Tinius said some workers didn't power up their machines until the polls open, and they can take awhile to come online.

"The machines that we use are called 'E-Poll Books,' and they had run an update when they started this morning," Tinius said. "So if the election officers had those on right at 5 when they got here, they would have had more time to warm up. But, sometimes, they don't get those on until right before the voters show up at 6.

Nailah Spencer with the Jefferson County Clerk's Office said the the system update is actually maintaining the integrity of the election by making sure people who cast an absentee ballot or voted early don't try to vote again. 

"We had about 113,000 people that were able to vote over the course of three days, not to mention we also have our absentee voters," Spencer said, referencing Jefferson County's no-excuse, in-person early voting period. "So what's happening is the system — the e-poll books — as soon as the election officers turn it on, it's updating with all the information that have already voted. So what it is doing — a positive thing — is it's upholding the integrity of the election. It's making sure that anybody that has already voted isn't able to come in and vote again."

After some voters were forced to wait for hours in line or even leave their polling location altogether, the Kentucky Democratic Party filed a motion in Jefferson Circuit Court requesting polls remain open until 8 p.m. The motion said voters will be "irreparably harmed" if the hours aren't extended.

"After receiving numerous reports of technical issues causing severe delays and infringing on Kentuckians' constitutional right to vote, we immediately filed a motion to request that the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office extend polling hours until 8 p.m. ET," Morgan Eaves, executive director of the party, said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon. "We will use all legal means necessary to ensure that every single Kentuckian eligible to vote has the ability to do so."

"At no fault of their own, voters have been deprived of their right to vote between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. because electronic systems operated by Defendant necessary to cast a ballot were not functional," the motion reads. "The two-hour extension is necessary to remedy the functional closing of polling locations between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. election day morning."

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a written statement Tuesday morning that local employers should "provide flexibility and understanding" to their employees stuck in line. He also called on the Jefferson County and State Boards of Elections to consider extending hours at the polls. But not long after Greenberg issued his statement, Tinius responded, saying there are no plans to extend hours. 

"We have no intention of keeping polls open later than 6, and we would appreciate if the mayor would refrain from telling us how to do our job," she said in a written statement. "We take this very seriously, and we are very confident that everyone will be able to vote by 6pm today."

The ACLU of Kentucky petitioned the court to join the motion. Both sides argued in front of Judge Eric Haner, who denied the request, writing that the groups failed to establish that anyone at those locations were denied the right to vote and at no time did any polling location close.

"Plaintiffs cite to 'approximately' a dozen locations at issue, yet request the entire County remain open for two (2) hours," Haner wrote. "Plaintiffs have not specifically identified the precincts effected, and whether any voters at those precincts were denied the right to vote."

Haner added that the request to keep polling locations open until 8 p.m. would violate the Kentucky Constitution, which states polls can't stay open past 7 p.m.

"Polling locations across Jefferson County were functionally closed," Eaves said in a written statement after the ruling. "These disruptions weren't just unacceptable — they deprived Kentuckians of the fundamental right to vote."

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