Mistakes fixed on ballots in Washington County

The Washington County Courthouse, Tuesday, February 14, 2017 in downtown Fayetteville.
The Washington County Courthouse, Tuesday, February 14, 2017 in downtown Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County election officials say they fixed three mistakes affecting ballots cast by two dozen voters in three races.

Sinclair Avenue in Fayetteville was put in Precinct 9 when it should have been in Precinct 11, according to Jennifer Price, director of the Washington County Election Commission.

Price said 44 registered voters live on the street and 17 voted before the mistake was discovered.

Election officials have fixed the glitch so the remaining 27 voters will get the proper ballot at the polls.

Those 17 voters who already cast ballots will be mailed a special ballot with the State Representative District 84 race on it. Incumbent Charlie Collins, a Republican, is facing Denise Garner, a Democrat, in that race.

In the justice of the peace race, voters should have seen the District 15 contest between Butch Pond, the incumbent Republican, and Quinn Childress, the Democratic challenger. Instead, ballots had the District 12 race between incumbent Sue Madison, a Democrat, and Todd Crane, the Republican challenger. Voters will not be allowed to vote again in that race and votes cast will be counted for the District 12 candidates.

Price said the error was discovered Tuesday night and the problem was resolved by Wednesday morning.

In Springdale, Gail Street was in the wrong precinct, according to Price. The street was included in Springdale Precinct 18, but should have been in Precinct 6, she said. Seven voters who live on that street were given incorrect ballots and voted in the House District 89 race between incumbent Jeff Williams, a Republican, and Megan Godfrey, a Democrat. Those votes will be counted in District 89.

The error was fixed Wednesday afternoon and voters started receiving the correct ballots with the House District 87 race between incumbent Robin Lundstrum, a Republican, and Kelly Scott Unger, a Democrat, Price said.

"The new voting equipment allows us to make these corrections within hours rather than weeks," Price said.

Madison said she thinks the candidates involved should have been notified sooner but there appears to be no way to change the votes cast to the correct precinct.

"There's not really any way to take care of it. It is what it is," Madison said. "And, there's no way to fix it."

The Election Commission last week approved a computer fix to correct ballots after discovering that a downtown Fayetteville precinct was assigned seven years ago to the wrong state Senate district.

The 54 precinct voters who cast ballots without Senate District 4 race on it were mailed ballots with just that race and have until election day to turn them in.

That contested race is between Fayetteville businesswoman Dawn Clemence, a Republican, and Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville.


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