Larry Hamp, aka columnist Barry Hastings, passed out while being second in line to vote at the Hastings Township Hall early Tuesday morning.

He was taken by ambulance to Pennock Hospital for tests and rest, but declared he wanted to return to his home rather than stay in the facility.

Hamp, who is in his late 70s, recently had announced he could no longer pen his “Barry Hastings-Muckraker” columns for Townbroadcast, but he and proprietor David T. Young late last week worked out an arrangement in which he would resume writing columns, but not on a weekly basis.

Hamp was scheduled to write a post-presidential election piece Wednesday, but his health issues have delayed those plans. He said he intends to continue his writings as soon as he is well enough. He was able to vote in the afternoon on his way home from the hospital.

He declared his retirement from writing columns late last month because of economic and health issues, but then reconsidered and worked out a less strenuous deal with the editor.