Marion races could include votes from outside city limits

Marion races could include votes from outside city limits

Improperly- coded maps may have resulted in faulty ballots for as many as 65 voters

news@theeveningtimes.com

The Crittenden County Election Commission called two emergency meetings Friday to quell candidate concerns. The noontime meeting centered on a few ballots that failed to scan and how they were handled. The evening meeting drew Marion city candidates for mayor and city council. Some voters north of the Marion City limits had the Marion races on their ballots and could have voted in the race.

Election Commissioner Frank Barton fielded questions from candidates and the media in both meetings. The election commission had a busy week with emergency meetings.

These two special called meetings followed another earlier in the week moving the Crawfordsville poll from Mount Pisgah to the water department.

Barton reported to the Marion candidates that 65 voters north of the city had a chance to cast a ballot in the city races. The precinct maps had been coded incorrectly. The problem came to the attention of poll workers and the commission when a voter called attention to it on October 26.

Commissioners consulted with the county attorney and the Secretary of State about what to do. The first notification to candidates came a full week after the error was discovered. He called the meeting so all the candidates impacted by the mix up could hear the news together.

“Some people that live outside the city limits of Marion that normally vote at the county court house received ballots that had Marion races list,” said Barton. “They had the ability of voting on those Marion races when they should not have. That is why the six candidates in the Marion races have asked to be here.

A voter brought it to the attention of the poll workers.”

That kicked off a process to identify and fix the problem. Mapping and coding were wrong.

“The election commission staff contacted the software vendor ES& S and quickly make a change in the programming,” said Barton.

“After that time it was corrected but 65 voters cast ballots and we do notify they voted in Marion races or not.”

Commissioners heard from the Secretary of State the following Wednesday with the recommendation to consult with the county attorney.

“They gave conflicting opinions on notifying candidates but the election commission decided to be completely transparent and let candidates know that this took place,” said Barton.

There was good news and bad news for those running for council and mayor.

The good news was the 65 ballots at issue were all identifiable.

The bad news made things more complicated for any candidate that lose a close race. The errant ballots will count in the election.

“They’ve been scanned,” said Barton. “They have markings on them where we could go in at a later date and pull them, but we don’t have the ability legally to do that. They’ll have to stay locked up.”

So, what would a Marion candidate losing by 65 or fewer votes have to do?

It’s a little more involved than asking for a recount.

Barton told candidates they’d have to sue the election commission and ask a judge to toss Marion votes of off the mixed up ballots.

“The candidate on the wrong side of the 65 votes should do something,” said Barton. “That candidate would need to file a lawsuit in circuit court and ask the judge for a remedy. It is something that can be fixed, We just can’t do it on our own.”

In an unrelated election commission meeting at noon on Friday, concerned candidates met with commissioners. The new electronic scanner had spit some ballots out at voters on Tuesday. Some candidates expressed concerns that some one other than the voter had handled the ballots before the votes were cast in the electronic ballot box.

“I was there Tuesday when we had that scanner mistake,” said Barton.

The scanner began rejecting most paper ballots at 5:00 p.m. with an hour left in voting for the day. Poll workers and other officials went to a built in plan b.

“The DS 200 scanner in the early vote site was only scanning one out of every seven ballots,” said Barton. “When that happened opened up the alternate storage box underneath the machine. That keeps ballots in a secured spot but doesn’t scan them. When the crowd moved out and the poll closed at 6:00 p.m., we turned the machine off, cleaned it, and it booted back up in the normal process. Then two people from the clerks office, Mike Farrah from the election commission office, and some poll workers, we scanned the roughly 70 ballots cast during the last hour. We scanned them into the machine without any problem. All those votes got counted. We haven’t had a repeat since.”

By John Rech