Utah voters flocked to the polls Tuesday to cast their votes for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, but many Utah County voters found themselves turned away in search of a new polling place.

"I didn't get anything in the mail, and obviously I'm not the only one," said Provo resident Ralph Bradley.

Bradley said he went to Provost Elementary where he has voted for 27 years, only to find his precinct had changed from 47 to 44. Precinct 44 voters were sent to the historic courthouse, and a Provost poll greeter said she turned away at least 30 people by 2 p.m.

Bradley said he was concerned about the changes because many people did not know about them, and some people may have become discouraged and not voted at all. It is also more difficult for those who rely on others for transportation.

"I would think it's a little harder on the elderly and handicapped when we do this," he said.

Provost Elementary was not the only location that sent voters away. Bradley said several people were sent to new locations from the courthouse as well.

Voters at Centennial Middle School waited in line for more than an hour, many finding out their precinct had moved to a new location.

Lorna Alder, a 101-year-old Provo resident, traveled to Centennial Middle School to vote, only to find she needed to go to the BYU Conference Center.

"We had always voted at Centennial, and not knowing any different, that's where we went," she said.

Although there was a long line at the middle school, Alder said voters allowed her to go to the front of the line with her walker. She said she found out quickly she was at the wrong location, but the situation was still confusing for her.

Another voter said he went to Farrer Elementary School, then to Provost Elementary, to the historic courthouse and back to Provost before he could vote. Josh Dettinger said he normally votes at Farrer Elementary and did not receive any notice in the mail about new locations.

"I was just frustrated because I went back and forth so many times," he said.

Eliza Tanner Hawkins said the voting confusion may have cost her a vote in the election. She found out too late that her location had changed, and by the time she had a chance to vote the wait was almost 45 minutes. Hawkins said she had two young sons with a fever and she could not stay to vote.

She felt all the locations should have been left open or more notice sent out.

"Right now I feel disenfranchised," she said.

Bryan Thompson, Utah County clerk/auditor, said notification about changing precincts was sent in the mail last summer after the decision was made. However, many have been returned to the office, and he said it is quite possible many residents did not receive notice.

The decision to consolidate polling places was made based on voter turnout from previous elections, he said, and the decision was meant to save money for the county.

"In 2000, they had such a poor turnout, we looked at consolidation for more efficient use of our resources," he said.

Thompson said he made the decision to consolidate polling places before he realized how much interest there would be in this election. Polling places must be approved 30 to 60 days before the election, so Thompson said once officials realized voter turnout would be higher, there was no time to open more polls.

Thompson said he also made the decision to not put polling locations on the voter registration cards sent out for the election in order to avoid confusion. The county has different locations than cities, and Thompson did not want voters to think the new locations were their permanent polling places.

"Ultimately, the confusion is our responsibility and we just didn't handle it very well," he said.

One problem that could have been avoided was people being turned away from their regular polling locations, even if it was still being used. Thompson said voters should have had a new location if their normal poll was closed, but not otherwise. More money should have been spent on advertising for the elections, but Thompson said he did not anticipate so many problems.

"We're all creatures of habit, and as we make changes it disrupts things that we're used to," he said. "We just didn't fully understand the consequences."

Salt Lake County mails out notices before every election, but Thompson said Utah County's budget is 10 times smaller and cannot handle the same levels of advertising. Even so, he said the county may have to accept that a certain amount of money will need to be spent for every election in order to advertise and have more polling locations.

Thompson said the confusion about which polling place to go to dissipated through the day as more residents were aware of the problem. Although the polls stayed very busy through the evening, Thompson said the main issue that slowed voters down was filling out party affiliation sheets. Several thousand were used for the election, and Thompson said the polls had lines until they closed at 8 p.m.

Once the polls closed, anyone in line to vote was allowed to do so, and a handful of polling locations were still processing results after 9:30 p.m.