VAN BUREN — Residents of Ward 2 in Van Buren who voted early on Tuesday were unable to vote in the House District 24 Republican primary because it was left off their ballots.
House District 24 covers parts of Washington and Crawford counties and is one of nine contested races in Crawford County.
Ty Bates and Brad Hall were the candidates omitted from the ballot. The winner will face Ryan Intchauspe, a Democrat, in the general election in November. The winner in November will replace Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, who decided against running for reelection this year.
Mike Moxley, Crawford County Election Commission chairman, said the error was noticed after the first day of voting, and all subsequent voters were given a correct ballot. He said the error impacted fewer than 10 people, who have all been notified and made arrangements to come complete their ballots.
Moxley said the commission is working with the Election Systems and Software company based in Omaha, Neb., to eliminate errors.
“It was us not giving them the right data to match the ballots to,” he said.
Early voting in Crawford County continues Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and March 4 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Election Day is March 5 and polls will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Crawford County had voting challenges in the 2022 election as well, in the Republican primary for state House District 25 between Jody Harris and Chad Puryear. District 25 covers parts of Crawford, Franklin and Washington counties.
Bill Coleman, then Election Commission chairman, said at the time the issue was caused by having incorrect programming for the primary elections because of redistricting. He said the County Clerk’s Office worked to verify voters had the correct information on the primary ballots, but by then the absentee ballots already had been sent.
“When the clerk’s office went back and looked at those ballot applications that they had mailed out, there was only one person who had received a ballot that was incorrect,” Coleman said at the time. The county clerk contacted that voter and got that person the correct ballot, he said.