The Louisiana Secretary of State is looking into why independent voters at eight Orleans Parish precincts weren't allowed to vote in the Second Congressional District race.

"We got 25 calls here at the office during the course of that day. I thought the number would be larger than that, but it wasn't," said Secretary of State Jay Dardenne.

Those 25 complaints came from eight Orleans Parish precincts, according to Dardenne, with an additional complaint from one Jefferson Parish precinct.  His initial investigation revealed an operator error caused the problem, not the voting machines themselves. Even though both Independents and Democrats were allowed to vote in the Second Congressional race, some polling commissioners locked voters out in error.

"I do not know why the people who got the training didn't do what they were told to do, but apparently, in some cases, they did not," Dardenne said.

Leaving his precinct Saturday, independent voter Allan Boudreaux said he couldn't understand it.

"I went and tried to hit the button for the candidate I wanted and nothing showed up. And I eventually figured out that I went and looked at the bottom of the machine and it said you're not eligible to vote in this primary," Boudreaux said.

Robert Sowerwine said he had the same problem at a different Orleans Parish location.

"They said because I was registered Independent, that that's the way the machines were set up by the state that I could not vote for that race," Sowerwine said.

According to Dardenne, poll commissioners had two buttons to choose from when setting the machines: one for voters affiliated with any party other than the Democratic Party, including republicans who could not vote in the primary, the other for Democrats and Independents who could.

The same rules apply to the Democratic Party’s Primary Runoff between Bill Jefferson and Helena Moreno next month.

The Secretary of State trains election clerks in each parish, then, the clerks hire and train the polling commissioners.

"We provide a power point to all the clerks. We provide written documentation, we provide information with the different packets that go to every precinct on what to do," Dardenne said.

"I became concerned that it was happening all over the city because the poll commissioners were told the same thing," said Sowerwine.

 The Secretary of State said he’s not sure exactly how widespread the problem was because his only way to gauge was the number of phone call complaints he received.

Orleans Parish Criminal Court Clerk Arthur Morrell couldn’t be reached for comment on this story.

Dardenne said the only way the mistakes would lead to another election is if someone sued, and was able to prove to a judge that the number of disenfranchised voters would’ve changed the outcome of the race.