Complaints of voters receiving the incorrect ballot during the Aug. 2 primary election has been attributed to an error on the part of poll workers. Circuit Clerk Vickie Hariel said during the election she received a call from a candidate that a voter at the Carriere precinct did not get the proper ballot, and could not vote for the proper justice court judge.
Going to the precinct, Hariel diagnosed the problem as poll workers encoding voting cards with the wrong information. In the Gumpond precinct a similar situation occurred, with voters receiving incorrect ballots for the superintendent of education. That problem was caused by a poll worker incorrectly clearing out a voting card that was used by a previous voter.
Hariel said the problem in Carierre was rectified shortly after 10:30 a.m. Hariel said she instructed the poll workers that voters who had received the wrong ballot needed to be informed they could revote via paper ballot, but only for the candidates who were left off the voting machine. Hariel said a few voters did take advantage of that offer, but she could not say exactly how many.
Poplarville Beat 3 had a similar issue, Hariel said, which was also corrected.
She said the error would not have affected the outcome of the justice court judge election because the opposed race, the east side race, had a 500-vote gap and only about 650 residents voted in the Republican races at that precinct all day. The west side justice court judge race was unopposed. Hariel said that fact, combined with the issue being fixed shortly after 10:30 a.m., means the outcome would have been the same.
As for Gumpond, Hariel said the few residents voting in that precinct could not have changed the outcome of that election, either.
A problem was also reported at the Nicholson precinct, but Hariel said she was at that precinct at the time and was able to determine the voter was mistaken about whether to vote in the west or east elections.
Full Article: Poll-worker error led to incorrect ballot style – Politics – SunHerald.com.