GOP poll workers in Missouri got lost during their lunch break — and voters were turned away

In Missouri, a pair of Republican poll workers got lost during their lunch break — and their absence caused the polling place to be shut down until they returned.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that during the state's August 7 primary, three total Republican poll workers were absent from a polling place in Berkeley, Missouri, with the other having to leave to attend to a family emergency.

Missouri, like most states, requires polling places to be staffed with a near-equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The remaining Democrats at the Berkeley location decided to close down voting due to the absence of three poll workers (known as "judges" in Missouri) for the 45 minutes it took for the St. Louis County Board of Elections to find replacements.

"It was just like a comedy of errors," Eric Fey, the county's Democratic director of elections, told the Post-Dispatch.

The Democratic elections chief (one of two, the other his Republican counterpart) said he'd have preferred his fellow party members not shut down the poll, which serves two precincts totaling nearly 1000 voters.