Several Minnesota communities are dealing with misprinted ballots after early voting opened Friday for the Nov. 5 election.
Hennepin County voters in House District 43A received absentee ballots with the incorrect middle initial for Rep. Cedrick Frazier, a DFLer, who is running for re-election against Republican challenger Todd Hesemann. Some ballots have Frazier’s middle initial as “B” when it should be listed as “R.”
When ballots are misprinted, the Minnesota Supreme Court has to sign off on whatever fix state and local officials propose. In Frazier’s case, the Secretary of State’s office plans to count the ballots with the incorrect initial normally.
“Every year stuff like this pops up and every year there are procedures in place to correct it,” said Peter Bartz-Gallagher, communications director for Secretary of State Steve Simon.
On Wednesday evening, Hennepin County election officials acknowledged 28 of the 55,000 absentee ballots they recently sent out were missing the ovals voters fill in, due to a printing error. Elections officials say voters can ask for a new ballot, mark their existing ballot in an obvious way or vote in person at an early voting location or on Election Day.
In March, the Hennepin County Board approved a $1.6 million, five-year contract with BlueCrest to automate absentee ballot mailing. County officials send out more than 100,000 ballots during the general election to residents who vote absentee.
On Tuesday, Wabasha County officials said voters in Zumbro Falls received mail-in ballots with the District 20A House candidates when they should be voting in the District 20B race.
Michael Plante, Wabasha County administrator, said county officials will issue corrected ballots to the affected precinct after the state Supreme Court signs off. Ballots with the errors will be “spoiled” and will not be used in the election.
