Associated Press

Voting machine glitches, long lines and misinformation were among the problems that voters faced at the polls Tuesday.

The cause of the problems ran the gamut from human error to threatened violence to technological errors to Mother Nature as storms pummeled several states in the South.

The issues added more chaos to a bitterly fought election that will decide who controls the Senate, House and hundreds of down-ticket races.

Here’s what you should know about Election Day voting issues:

Long lines and malfunctioning machines marred voting in some precincts across the U.S. Some voters reported waiting up to three hours to vote, with some of the biggest problems in Georgia and New York.

In South Carolina, a woman said she called 911 after waiting outside her polling place for 45 minutes to get help because she’s disabled.

Not even Georgia’s state election boss was immune from voting problems.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, had an issue with his voter card when he went to cast his ballot, but it was fixed quickly. He walked by reporters and said: “Take 2.”

The Georgia governor’s race is one of the most closely watched in the country, due in part to an ongoing dispute over Kemp’s management of the election system. Kemp has resisted calls from former President Jimmy Carter and others for him to step down from overseeing the election that he is running in.

In South Carolina, Sandy Hanebrink told the Anderson Independent-Mail she couldn’t make it inside her polling place because she can’t walk on the gravel or grass where vehicles have to park. Hanebrink said she tried to flag down poll workers and call Anderson County’s election hotline before dialing 911. Poll workers went out after she made her call.

Poll manager Michael Bratcher said workers were unaware people were waiting outside and he didn’t have enough workers to monitor voters inside and possible curbside voting outside.

Voting was mostly peaceful across the country on Tuesday, but there were a few reported problems, including heated confrontations between poll workers and voters.

In Texas, a white poll worker was accused of bumping a black voter during an argument at a polling site and suggesting that the voter could better understand her if she’d worn “my blackface makeup.”

The Houston Chronicle reported the dispute began over a discrepancy with the voter’s address. The confrontation escalated, and witnesses confirmed to the newspaper that the worker said, “Maybe if I’d worn my blackface makeup today you could comprehend what I’m saying to you.”

The election judge at the site separated the two. The poll worker was cited for misdemeanor assault.

In Pennsylvania, a man was accused of threatening to shoot poll workers who told him he wasn’t registered to vote.

Melanie Ostrander, Washington County assistant elections director, said 48-year-old Christopher Thomas Queen, of Claysville, went to a polling place in South Franklin Township on Tuesday morning and became irate when he was told he wasn’t registered.

Ostrander said the man “told the poll workers he was going to go get a gun and come back and shoot them.” He was charged with terroristic threats and disorderly conduct. Court documents don’t list an attorney for him.

Severe weather and humidity were to blame for voting issues in a handful of states.

In North Carolina, officials said high humidity prevented ballots in some precincts from being able to be fed through tabulators in some precincts in Wake and Forsyth counties. Officials said such ballots are stored securely in emergency bins and would be tabulated as soon as possible.

In New York City, a co-chairman of the state election board, Douglas Kellner, said scanners were breaking down at a higher-than-usual rate because it was using a two-page ballot and the weather was damp.

Kellner noted that if scanners were not working or lines for working scanners were too long, the ballots would be put aside in an emergency ballot box and scanned later or counted by hand.

In Tennessee, severe storms that knocked down trees and power lines forced voters in some places to use paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines. Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said the polling places that had electricity knocked out were operating on generators and had emergency ballots ready. He said the paper ballots would be counted Tuesday.