About 100 students waiting in line to vote were turned away when the satellite voting station at Parks Library closed at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Mara Spooner, a coordinator for the ISU Public Interest Research Group’s New Voters Project, said many students were confused about when the station was closed and weren’t allowed to vote.

“There were some angry students who didn’t understand why they didn’t get to vote,” Spooner said.

“Some were kind of upset because they were counting on today to be the day they would cast their ballot.”

Spooner said she was under the impression everyone could vote as long as they were in line by 3 p.m.

Story County Assistant Auditor Lisa Markley said that the rules are different for satellite voting and the station officials had to close at 3 p.m. regardless of how many people were in line.

“It’s illegal for us to open early or stay late,” Markley said.

“The satellite hours are clearly posted. When the station is going to close, we announce it 15 minutes ahead of time, and we did that.”

However, the state’s satellite voting instructions say the stations should be closed “after everyone has voted who arrived before the time established to close the station.”

“It would appear there has been an administrative violation, a mistake that was made, and we don’t adjudicate something like that,” Phyllis Peters, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s office, told The Associated Press.

“But we would try to point out that an infraction was made — that we would all learn from that and try to remedy the situation.”

Kate Brown, sophomore in art and design, was one of the students turned away.

She said she had been standing in line for nearly an hour when she heard the announcement that the station would be closed.

“On the first announcement, one of the New Voters Project people came up to us and said that the last person in line at 3 should be able to vote and that it was illegal if they didn’t,” Brown said. “They told us to wait because they were going to get the secretary of state to let us vote.”

Brown said that after New Voters Project workers spent some time on the phone with lawyers, media and the secretary of state, all they could do was tell students to go home because the satellite booth workers had packed up.

She said New Voters Project told her she could sign up for an absentee ballot, but she decided she is going to try to vote on Election Day.

“I wanted to vote today because it’s going to be hard for me to get over to my precinct on Nov. 2,” she said.

“It’s up by the mall. I don’t have a car, so I’ll have to take a bus, and the bus doesn’t go by there.”

Markley said she is proud of the satellite station turnout — more than 1,000 people voted in four days.

“I’m really sorry the New Voters Project is ending it this way; I feel bad that they’re making a production about this,” Markley said.