Primary voting temporarily halted in Puerto Rico due to a lack of ballots

Voters in Puerto Rico are turned away due to a lack of ballots.

(Image credit: AP Photo/Danica Coto)

published 10 August 2020

Election officials in Puerto Rico said Sunday's primary was temporarily suspended because several precincts on the island did not receive ballots.

The State Elections Commission later announced that in precincts that were unable to open by 1:45 p.m., voters will have the chance to cast their ballots on August 16 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., CNN reports. In some areas, voters waited for hours in the heat, wearing their required face masks, only to be turned away and told there weren't any ballots.

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Twitter said this was "totally unacceptable and outrageous! What the State Elections Commission did today is unprecedented and there is no excuse that can support it." She called on the head of the commission to step down, and said they "lied" to make it appear they were prepared for the election.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.