The review of absentee and questioned ballots cast in Tuesday’s municipal election revealed a general sense of confusion among many Juneau voters. City and election officials tallied 1,447 additional ballots during a public review Friday at the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly Chambers. The certified official results will be announced Oct. 14, after the remaining mail-in ballots trickle in. Election officials noted that counting machines continually rejected “over-voted” ballots in which too many candidates were chosen in a particular race. These errors disqualified that race on those ballots, though the rest of the correctly completed votes on the erroneous ballots were counted.
Election volunteers found many of the over-voted sections fell in the Assembly District 2 race, which asked voters to select “not more than one” candidate.
“It’s just a shame they didn’t understand,” Municipal Clerk Laurie Sica said. “People see the number ‘2’ and vote for two (candidates).”
Joshua Warren, runner-up in the Assembly District 2 race, received 393 absentee and questioned votes, while winner Debbie White received 398. This reflected the general trend of the Election Day polls and left White still leading by 376 votes. Over-voting had not previously caused concerns for ballot counters.
Full Article: ‘Over-voting’ was common problem for absentee voters | Juneau Empire – Alaska’s Capital City Online Newspaper.