The deadline for voters to cast their ballots was extended in certain counties across the country Tuesday, stretching out the timeline for midterm results tabulation in a handful of states.
The deadlines were pushed back in some counties to account for polling places opening late Tuesday morning, or because of glitches that inhibited the ballot-casting process for some voters.
Here are the states where certain polling place hours have been extended so far:
Texas
The Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas ACLU filed an emergency lawsuit on behalf of the Texas Organizing Project after a number of polling locations in Harris County, which includes Houston, allegedly failed to open on time Tuesday morning.
A judge approved an extension for the voting window and ordered the 782 polling places in the state’s largest county to stay open an hour past their typical closing time, until 8 p.m. local time.
Times were also extended by an hour in Bell County after issues with the county’s election check-in technology kept the polling places from opening on schedule.
Pennsylvania
Polling places will be kept open two hours later than usual in Luzerne County, Pa., after some polling places suffered a paper shortage that kept ballots from being printed.
Luzerne County election officials filed an emergency petition after noting the issue, and a Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judge issued an emergency court order to extend the voting window to 10 p.m. local time in order to compensate for the problem.
“The constitutional right to vote requires an extension of the voting hours,” the judge wrote in the filing.
North Carolina
The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend the voting window in polling places that opened late.
Polling places in North Carolina’s Columbus, Robeson and Wilson counties stayed open until 8:30 p.m. local time.
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Georgia
In Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the state’s Cobb County elections board for failing to send 1,046 requested absentee ballots.
A judge ordered the county to extend the deadline to return ballots for the affected absentee voters.
The ballots, which were overnighted to voters, still have to be postmarked by Election Day, but can come into the county as late as Nov. 14.