Nov 22, 2025 By Garrett Neese 3 min read

All 276 provisional ballots that had to be cast by Fayette County residents after an Election Day pollbook gaffe have been counted and sent to the state for the initial certification of the election, according to Commissioner Scott Dunn.

The state mistakenly sent the county an electronic file with 2024 voter information, which was downloaded to the voting pads used to check voters in at the precincts. Voters who switched from mail-in ballots last year to in-person voting were told they had already voted.

Workers at all precincts had been told to move to back up paper copies of the voter information by 10 a.m.

On election night, officials from the county election bureau asked election judges how many voters had not been able to cast any ballot, including a provisional one, because of the problem, Dunn said at Thursday’s commissioners meeting. The answer: about 10.

“It’s disconcerting to us, as I’m sure it is to the voting public,” he said. “One person not being able to vote is one too many, and to have 10 people not be able to vote is not a good thing.”

One of the 276 provisional voters was Dunn. He learned of the problem when he went to vote around 7:30 a.m. He then notified the county’s election bureau, which passed word up to the state.

“There was a lot of self-doubt that day,” he said. “There was a lot of me thinking, ‘Well, did I vote?’ … Then you start thinking about the bad stuff: Was my vote stolen? Or were we hacked? You start thinking about all the worst-case scenarios.”

Commissioner Vince Vicites was thankful it happened to Dunn, because it expedited the county’s response. He thanked judges of elections and election staff for keeping cool heads as the issue was sorted out.

The paper poll books had been in place already as backups, and election staff had been instructed on how to give voters provisional ballots. What could have been a disaster turned into a “very small amount of impact,” Vicites said.

Voters who had been wrongly disqualified from voting were able to return to polls to cast provisional ballots by 8 p.m.

“We really stress training,” Vicites said. “And I think that that was a big part of how (election workers) handled this, and the Election Bureau did a great job once they found out about it.”

County Democratic Party Chairman George Rattay thanked the commissioners for how quickly the county moved to rectify the issue.

“What happened here on Nov. 4 was a state problem that became a Fayette County problem, and I want to thank you (for) how it was handled professionally here,” he said.