A forest preserve district race has been omitted from thousands of ballots in Winnebago County, forcing election officials to spend $50,000 to fix the problem. The Winnebago County Clerk’s office didn’t include the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County race on the official certification of candidates sent to the Rockford Board of Elections before ballots were printed, the Rockford Register Star reported. A voter on Thursday noticed the missing race, which has three candidates running for two open board positions.
The mistake affects about 1,100 voters who used both walk-in absentee ballots or sent in absentee ballots by mail from Oct. 6 through Thursday. Of those voters, elections officials say 277 people who cast walk-in absentee votes won’t be able to vote in the forest preserve race.
Nearly 62,000 ballots to be used on Election Day also were printed without the race. They will be reprinted. Rockford election officials also plan to mail new ballots to nearly 2,500 voters who received absentee ballots and suspend walk-in voting until Monday.
Source: ROCKFORD, Ill.: $50,000 to fix Winnebago County ballot error | Elections | Bradenton Herald.