Another ballot error in Greene County jeopardizes commissioners race
news@greenecountymessenger.com
Another error with Greene County蘑菇视频 absentee and mail-in ballots could threaten the results of the board of commissioners鈥� race in next week蘑菇视频 election.
It蘑菇视频 the second time in the past two weeks that a mistake has been found after both district magistrate races were included on a previous version of the ballot, although those were recalled and another batch was sent out.
But this new batch of ballots erroneously asks people to 鈥渧ote for not more than three鈥� candidates for commissioners even though voters are supposed to only choose two out of the four options. The last-minute nature of the situation has county officials scrambling to figure out what to do since Oct. 31 was the final day to request a mail-in ballot, and they must be returned no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day next Tuesday, offering little time to correct the problem.
Greene County Commission Chairman Mike Belding, who is not running for re-election and leads the election board, said they were notified Saturday of the problem and have been working with solicitor Robert 鈥淕ene鈥� Grimm to find a solution with barely any time to spare. Grimm spent Monday speaking to state Department of State officials on how to proceed, and they expected to release information today on what could be done and how voters will be notified of the situation.
Democrats Blair Zimmerman and Christine 鈥淐hris鈥� Bailey are running against Republicans Betsy Rohanna McClure and Jared Edgreen for three seats on the board of commissioners. If a voter follows the instructions as stated and selects three candidates for commissioners, then that would be considered an 鈥渙ver vote鈥� and it would not be tabulated.
It蘑菇视频 not clear how officials plan to fix the problem, although a special elections board meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Greene County Fairgrounds upper level 4H Building #10 to apparently discuss and possibly vote on a solution.
About 1,800 mail-in ballots have been sent out, Belding said, and although he did not have breakdown on party affiliation, they usually skew heavily toward Democratic voters.
Former elections director Jason Mihal 鈥� who was the fourth different person to hold the position since August 2020 鈥� left the job earlier this month. The new elections director, Eric Finch, just started last week and was not in his position when the error occurred. The elections board, which Belding chairs, ultimately reviewed and approved both ballots before they were printed.
The previous problem had both magisterial district judge races on all mail-in ballots rather than being tailored to the races where the voter lived. The county recalled those original ballots 鈥� which also incorrectly told people to vote for three commissioner candidates 鈥� and printed new ones, which still had the mistake for the commissioners鈥� race.
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