While this year’s elections have seen some interesting twists, one of the most problematic could be the printed stickers used by those voting for Provo mayoral write-in candidate, Odell Miner. In a generous move, Miner had transparent stickers printed with his name and a filled-in voting oval or bubble to affix to the mail-in ballot in the hopes of making things easier for those voting for him. Bryan Thompson, Utah County clerk/auditor, was uneasy about Miner using the stickers in case a reading machine got jammed or had some other problem. However, Thompson said he couldn’t stop Miner from doing it either. “I told Odell you may not see all of your count,” Thompson said.
As predicted, when it came to election night, the reading machine could not read the pre-filled oval on the sticker
Thompson then had his election team fill in the ovals so it showed the individual voted for Miner.
According to Thompson, to preserve the integrity of the ballot, the initial enhancement — the act of filling in the oval — must be witnessed by two people, and the adjudication — ensuring the ballots’ integrity — by two other people. The machine also captures it in a digital copy. That all took extra time.
Full Article: Elections office fills in blank ovals on ballots | Provo News | heraldextra.com.