‘Voters got the message’ about mail-in ballot mistake in Greene County
“Quite a few” voters have made their way to the Greene County elections office to cure their mail-in ballots for today’s election after a printing error provided incorrect instructions on how to vote in the commissioners race.
That was how Commissioner Mike Belding described what county officials have seen over the past week. Eric Finch, the county’s director of elections, agreed and said there have been “a solid amount” of voters who came to ensure their mail-in ballots were properly filled out, but was not able to provide any specific figures.
“It is clear to the office the voters got the message,” Finch said.
Mail-in and absentee ballots in Greene County were sent out with a mistake telling people to vote for three out of the four choices in the county commissioners race, when they should only vote for two.
The elections office would consider a ballot with three selections an “overvote,” and none of that voter’s selections for commissioner would be counted.
Greene County sent letters to the more than 1,800 residents who requested e-mail ballots, and 1,200 emails to those who registered an address when applying for a ballot. The elections office had extended hours last and week and was open through the weekend.
Today, voters who received and returned a mail-in or absentee ballot will also be able to cast a provisional ballot at their polling place, which will invalidate their mail-in ballot.
“The things we have done to get information out have been significant,” Belding said.
Appearing on the ballot today will be Democrats Blair Zimmerman and Christine “Chris” Bailey and Republicans Betsy Rohanna McClure and Jared Edgreen.
Belding, who is not running for reelection and chairs the county’s election board, noted that there are likely many voters who did not notice the incorrect instructions or just voted for their party’s candidates.
“The other piece of that is the number of people who didn’t read the instructions and by habit only filled out two. People have voiced that,” Belding said.
Those who only voted for two candidates do not need to cast new ballots.
Last month, ballots were recalled due to a mistake that listed both of the county’s races for magisterial district judge when they should have listed just one or none at all. The error for the commissioner’s race was also present, but was not corrected on the new ballots. By the time the error was discovered, there was not enough time to send out new ballots before the election.
The worst case scenario, according to county solicitor Robert “Gene” Grimm, would be the need for a special election if the commissioners race is too close to call.
Grimm raised the prospect of a special election at an elections board meeting last week, but also said there was uncertainty about how they would move forward in the scenario.
“We have to make this election count to the best of our ability,” Grimm said at the meeting.
Belding hopes that by Wednesday afternoon they will know how many overvotes there were on the incorrect ballots.
“We’re hoping it’s a small number,” Belding said.