Election officials blame coding error for ballot shortage, long lines at some precincts

Election officials blamed a coding error for causing ballot shortages at several Chicago precincts on Tuesday, forcing people to wait in long lines for touchscreen voting machines.The Sun-Times and other outlets reported the issue affected precincts across the city, including polls at Holstein Park and in Ward 1, Precinct 4.The issue affected "split precincts" that require multiple ballot styles because they contain more than one election district boundary, a spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Elections said in a statement Wednesday.The spokesperson said the Board of Elections provided the correct number of total ballots to each precinct, but that an unprecedented "coding error" resulted in "an insufficient quantity of one ballot style... [and] an oversupply of another ballot style" in some split precincts.Election officials said they began printing extra ballots and shipping them as soon the issue was raised, as well as providing extra electronic voting machines. Precincts stayed o