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Power outage didn’t short-circuit early voting at two St. Paul polls

By Joe Kimball | 11/04/08

A power outage at two St. Paul polling places didn't put much of a crimp in voting there.

A car hit a power pole -- near the polls -- cutting power to 1,400 customers in the Merriam Park neighborhood, including the Dunning Rec Center and Maxfield School polling places.

That meant the counting machines didn't work for early voters, so they filled out their forms and put them into an emergency slot. When the power returned about 9:30 a.m., judges fed them into the machine, and voting went on.