Polls in Barnstable will be open until midnight tonight, after an issue with a vault that kept election ballots.
In a statement, the town said the clerks tried to open the vault around 4:15 this morning, but were not able to. The precincts in Barnstable, while open, were not available for voting until the issue was resolved.
As of 3:15 this afternoon, emergency paper ballots were secured, and all polling precincts have ballots.
A court order was sought by Secretary of State, Bill Galvin’s office, to extend polling hours.
All ballots are similar to the machine-readable ballots, but the town of Barnstable says they will have to hand count them at the end of the night.