(La Porte County, IN) - The La Porte County Clerk’s Office has been busy sorting out an election ballot snafu.

 

The error has to do with the candidates for Long Beach Town Council. The original ballot asked voters to select five people for the council, but according to County Clerk Heather Stevens, the number should be three. The problem is that six candidates are running for three open seats. Selecting more than three on an un-ranked ballot would not yield a valid result.

 

Stevens told the County Election Board Friday afternoon in an emergency meeting that she learned of the mistake Thursday afternoon and by Friday morning had it fixed.

 

Stevens said 41 Long Beach voters had already voted by machine, and election officials are still determining how many, if any, Long Beach voters have already submitted absentee ballots. All of those early voters will be notified. They can re-cast a ballot. Stevens said those voters do not even have to wait for notification. They can visit a voting center or the Mobile Voting Unit at any time. If they do not re-vote, their Town Council votes will be redacted, but the rest of their ballot will remain valid.

 

Stevens said she intends to email the Indiana Election Division to review the matter. “I would like them to audit this. I want to make sure that everything we’ve done, we did properly,” Stevens said. “Human error happens every day, but it’s how you handle the errors. And I just want to make sure that when errors happen, we are handling them correctly, we are going by the book.”