Ballots with error sent to troops overseas

By the News-item Staff)
Published: September 2, 2010

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SUNBURY - Approximately 90 ballots for military personnel in the 108th Legislative District serving away from home were re-sent after a printing error switched the political parties of the two candidates for state representative.

A special write-in ballot for military personnel, created by the Northumberland County Board of Elections, mistakenly showed Antonio D. Michetti as the Republican candidate while Lynda Schlegel-Culver was listed as the Democratic candidate.

The two are running for state Rep. Merle Phillips's seat, which will be vacant after this term.

Michetti said in a press release that he was informed of the mistake by a member of the military, who had requested the ballot from the county. The candidate, in turn, informed Rodger Babnew, chairman for the Northumberland County Democratic Party, who spoke with director Alisha Herb.

"This was a special write-in ballot for the military people that we made up," Herb said. "We have not received the printed ballots for absentees yet. This was a special write-in ballot that we sent out ahead of time."

The ballot consisted of two pages: The first page was the list of candidates the voters could pick in the U.S. senator, governor, congressional and state representative races. The second page listed the four offices and a blank line for voters to write the name of their choice down.

"Even with the mistake, there is no way the votes would be tabulated wrong, since the name had to be written down, not counted by a computer," Herb said. "You couldn't vote straight party, the choice had to be written down, by name, on the ballot."

When asked why he quickly addressed this error with the elections office, Michetti remarked in the release, "We run an above-board issues-oriented campaign, and want every vote to count, especially those individuals serving our country." He also said that he notified Culver of the mistake.

A corrected version of the ballot was sent to overseas military personnel Tuesday, one week after the original ballot was mailed.

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