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THAT’S SO PANDEMIC

Hand Sanitizer Gummed Up a Ballot Scanner in Iowa So Badly It Stopped Working

Poll workers moved the sanitizing station further from the entrance so voters’ hands would be dry by the time they reached the machine.

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Jon Cherry/Getty

By Blake Montgomery

In what’s likely a first for the Hawkeye State, hand sanitizer gummed up a ballot scanner in Des Moines so badly it stopped working on Election Day. The Iowa Secretary of State told the Associated Press that poll workers fixed the machine after about an hour and that vote tabulation was not seriously impacted. Pollsters moved the sanitizing station, meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19, farther away from the polling place’s entrance so that voters’ hands would dry by the time they reached the scanner.

Read it at Associated Press

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