FAYETTEVILLE -- The power went out at the Washington County courthouse Tuesday afternoon and election officials planned to count ballots at the sheriff's annex building after polls closed.
The front doors to the courthouse were locked. No voting was being held at the courthouse on Election Day. The nearest polling site, at Central United Methodist Church on Dickson Street, continued to have power.
An online outage map with Southwestern Electric Power Company showed about 2,300 customer outages starting around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The outage area spanned roughly Township Street to east of Root Elementary, south to Mount Sequoyah and west to Wilson Park.
One polling site, at Sequoyah United Methodist Church on Old Wire Road, was within the outage area.
About 4:50 p.m., the outage area shrunk to nearly 400 outages. Sequoyah United Methodist Church was outside the outage area. The power at the courthouse was still off, according to Jennifer Price, executive director of the Washington County Election Commission.
Price said election officials will count ballots at the annex building next to the Washington County Sheriff's Office on Clydesdale Drive, about 3 miles south of the courthouse.