According to Daviess County Chief Deputy Clerk Richard House, incorrect ballots were handed out at Precinct 34, Owensboro Middle School, this morning due to poll worker error.
House said there are two ballots at Precinct 34, one with the Owensboro Public School board race and one without. Otherwise, House said, the ballots were the same.
“What happened was the poll worker didn’t look at the coding on the ballot,” said House, who teaches mandatory election school for all poll workers.
There are 85 polling locations being manned by approximately 370 volunteer poll workers today. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, those volunteers were required to attend one of six, two-hour election training classes, hosted by the Daviess County Clerk’s Office.
House said that the error at the 34th Precinct was fixed before 7 a.m. and “everything is under control.” He was not aware of how many ballots were affected before the error was corrected.
Owensboro Times was notified of a potential problem at the Owensboro Christian Church polling location by a subscriber. She said that she lives in the fringe, meaning she lives within city limits, but in Daviess County’s school district. According to the subscriber, she realized she was handed the wrong ballot after leaving and remembering she did not vote for the city commission race as she has in previous elections.
House confirmed that three incorrect ballots were handed out at Precinct 20 at Owensboro Christian Church. He said there are three types of ballot codes — CC for voters that live in the county and send kids to county schools, FC for voters that live in the city but send kids to city schools, and O for voters that live in the city and send kids to county schools. According to House, three fringe voters — designated with the FC code– were handed incorrect ballots by the poll workers.
The Owensboro Times subscriber called the County Clerk’s office to notify them of the issue, which she realizes was just a mistake made by a poll worker.
“I was kind of bummed when I left there,” the subscriber said. “But we all make mistakes. It is just really important that everyone is diligent and checks their ballot.”
House said the clerk’s office is sending staff across the city all day long to verify the correct voting process is taking place and to remind poll workers to check the ballot codes.
