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Printing Error Causes Voting Glitch in Linn County

By Dave Franzman, Reporter

By Becky Ogann

CEDAR RAPIDS - It's election day across Iowa. So far, voting has gone pretty smoothly across eastern Iowa. But a printing error did cause a voting glitch Tuesday morning in one Cedar Rapids precinct.

It affected a race for Linn County Supervisor. The ballot showed one candidate's name... but had no place to mark a vote. And an estimated 80 to 110 voters cast ballots before anyone detected that printing problem.

Ben Rogers, a Democrat running for county supervisor in district three is the candidate impacted by the ballot glitch. He's a bit concerned, but hopeful it won't cause a major problem.

When voters go to mark a ballot in Linn County, they have to fill in an oval next to the candidate's name for the vote to count. But the first ballots at precinct 39, at Franklin Middle School, didn't have an "oval" for Supervisor candidate Ben Rogers.

"It's isolated...it effected about 80 to 110 ballots...they're printing off new ballots and checking with every precinct to make sure their ballots are correct and in the right format," said Ben Rogers, (D) Linn Supervisor Candidate.

The Linn County Auditor says a check found only the ballots at the one precinct had the printing problem and those ballots were replaced a half hour after the polls opened.

If early voters there voted a straight Democrat party ticket, then Rogers didn't lose any votes. Likewise, if voters made a mark in the approximate area where an oval should have gone, the scanning machines probably counted it correctly. But if it's a close race, then something else will probably happen.

"If the candidate decides, if the race is close, then we'll have a recount and figure out what the intend of the voters was," said Joel Miller, (D) Linn County Auditor.

Auditor Miller believes a number of early voters at that one precinct may have voted a straight party ticket or skipped the supervisor's race because the misprint wasn't discovered for awhile. If so, then the impact of that particular race probably won't be that significant.

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