From my colleague Bill McAuliffe, who’s been following up on word of ballot mixups that affected school referenda in the northwest Twin Cities suburbs:

At least three voters in the Osseo school district won’t be heard on three school issues that should have been on their ballot.

Two voters in one Plymouth precinct and an absentee voter in Brooklyn Park apparently cast ballots that came from the stack intended for their neighbors, who live in different school districts.

The Osseo district has voters in 59 precincts in seven western Hennepin County cities and one township.

Plymouth communications manager Helen LaFave said that after learning of the mixups elections officials reminded poll workers
Tuesday to pay closer attention to whether voters were getting the correct ballots.

But they don’t have any way of knowing whether there were more wrong ballots cast or handed out unless voters notify them.

“Once they’re in the machines, there’s no going back,” LaFave added. “It’s an anonymous process.”

Similarly, there won’t be any way to tell whether those votes might have made a difference if the school issues are decided by three votes or less.

“We don’t know how they would have voted,” LaFave added.

The school district was seeking $13 million per year through two ballot initiatives, and three seats on the school board were contested.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Election Day, Polling problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.