UPDATE 2:12 p.m. — “Power has been restored and no voter went without being processed and casting their ballot during the short period power was out,” Judge Barger reported. “Many thanks to Huntsville Utilities for their quick response.”
Voting is continuing as planned at four Madison County polling locations after a power outage hit the northern end of the county on Election Day afternoon.
Madison County Probate Judge Frank Barger, the county’s chief election official, told 256 Today all voting machines at the four precincts switched to battery backup and are operating as expected. His office is in contact with Huntsville Utilities, which he said is working diligently to restore service, and law enforcement is on standby at the affected locations to ensure voter safety.
The outage left 13,309 Huntsville Utilities customers without power, according to the utility’s outage map, with nearly all of them in one outage covering the Hazel Green area along the Tennessee line north of Meridianville.
The map showed five active outages as of 1:18 p.m.; the other four accounted for a handful of customers in Huntsville and Madison. The 13,309 figure is 5.7% of the 232,048 customers the utility serves.
Huntsville Utilities has not said what caused the outage or when power will be restored. Polls in Alabama are open until 7 p.m., and anyone in line at 7 p.m. is allowed to vote.
Madison County is one of the state’s largest voting counties, with 333,775 registered voters as of September and 79 polling locations. Every Alabama voting machine carries battery backup for exactly this situation.
The same safeguard kept a Mobile County precinct open this morning after a separate outage knocked out power on Sage Avenue at St. Pius Catholic Church Family Life Center, Precinct 47.
Mobile County officials said a generator was sent to the site and that voting was not affected. Alabama Power said power there would be restored by 11 a.m.
The National Weather Service does not expect rain across most of north Alabama before polls close. A cold front moving in overnight could bring 2 to 3 inches of rain to parts of northern Alabama through Thursday.
Voters across the state are choosing a governor, lieutenant governor, a U.S. Senator, all seven U.S. House seats, the full Legislature and county offices. Madison County voters are also electing a sheriff, superintendent and several circuit and district judges.
Voters who need their polling place can check myinfo.alabamavotes.gov. Unofficial statewide results will post to AlabamaVotes.gov after 7 p.m.
Grayson Everett is the vice president of content for YHN Media Group.
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