Mis-sized paper ballots sent out to nearly a quarter of all Illinois counties were creating problems at Aurora polling places Tuesday, forcing some election judges to cut each ballot to size by hand. The problem affected DuPage, Grundy and 22 other counties as well, election officials said. According to Jane Gasperin of the Illinois State Board of Elections, ballots were printed incorrectly by two vendors, and distributed throughout the state. The ballots appear to be about a millimeter too tall, and a millimeter too wide, election judges said. Gasperin said not all precincts in the affected counties have received the mis-sized ballots, but that Tuesday night’s tallying will take longer as a result of the error.
In Kane and Kendall counties, the voting process appeared to be going smoothly, but for the Aurora Election Commission it was another story. When the polls opened, election judges couldn’t get their machines working. At Prisco Community Center, election judge Doug Ottesen had to open the machine’s safe, and cast each ballot by hand, which had some voters upset.
“Ninety-nine percent of voters seem to be OK, but it does make some people uneasy,” Ottesen said. He encouraged voters to use electronic voting, which was operating properly, but said paper ballots were being handled as securely as possible.
Full Article: Ballots too big at Aurora polls; Kane, Kendall sites OK – Aurora Beacon News.