Issues with 2nd ballot page reported at some Lee County polls

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Credit: WINK News.

Some voters in Lee County were reporting Tuesday that the second sheet of their ballots wasn’t being accepted by the machines at their precincts.

“Something must have been wrong with the way the ballot was printed, which seems kind of crazy that isn’t something that wasn’t tested,” said voter Jason Lortie.

He didn’t have to wait long to vote and everything went smoothly – until he went to feed his ballot into the machine.

“When I put my second sheet of the ballot through, at first it kicked it back. The poll worker said flip it over and try putting it in the other way, kicked it back again and they said that’s something they had kind of seen happening a little bit.”

It wasn’t just happening at Lortie’s polling place.

“The second page would not take, it would not scan so it stopped everything in its track,” said voter Frank Koehler.

The second sheet of the ballot contains amendments.

Those who showed up to the polls early and ran into the problem were told to put the second sheet of their ballot in an emergency bin. Those ballots will be tabulated at an emergency tabulation center location, according to the elections office.

“That never should have happened,” Koehler said. “That was a fiasco. Everybody was saying unplug the machine, plug the machine back in like I do with my appliances, whatever.”

While some were disappointed with their voting experience, Lortie said he’s confident his vote will get counted.

“If that’s the biggest issue we have with this election, I think we’ll be OK.”

Vicki Collins, spokesperson for the Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office, said more than 20 precincts were affected, and “all of that has been managed and is being managed at this time, so every vote will be counted.”

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