Several dozen voters in Schuyler County may have their early votes for U.S. Senate scrapped after a printing error led to the wrong name appearing for the Republican U.S. Senate candidate.
The error was noticed earlier this week. It showed Peggy Hubbard as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. Hubbard lost the June primary to Kathy Salvi. Salvi said her campaign immediately took action to ensure ballots already cast were sequestered.
“While we came to the best remedy – to sequester the hundreds of ballots that were distributed – this does not solve the most pressing problem of election integrity and transparency,” Salvi said.
She faces Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Libertarian Bill Redpath in the Nov. 8 election. Early voting has been going on since Sept. 29. That’s also when requested mail-in ballots were sent out.
Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said the state board did their part correctly in certifying the statewide ballot for all 108 local election jurisdictions to use and the problem was on a county level.
“In this case, someone dropped the ball there and it was a printing error, is what it was,” Dietrich said.
Dietrich recommends the 45 in-person early votes already cast in the U.S. Senate race not be counted. “Any votes for Peggy Hubbard will be disregarded, they won’t be counted,” Dietrich said. “There’s really very little that can be done once an early ballot is cast in person.”
Two hundred of the 307 mail-in ballots completed and sent back to Schuyler County can be sequestered.
“They’re going to send new corrected ballots with an explanation to all the voters who applied for vote-by-mail ballots in Schuyler County, giving them the option if they so chose to revote, send in the new ballot at which time their already mailed incorrect ballot will be invalidated and spoiled,” Dietrich said.
Hubbard, who has said the June primary which she lost was unfair, reacted to the situation of Salvi’s name not being on the ballot.
“I’m glad that it happened, because she was one of the main people denying that voter fraud ever happens. Guess what, my name is on the ballot and yours is not,” Hubbard said Wednesday on Facebook.
Salvi said in a statement the ballot mistake is unacceptable and does not foster confidence in voters.
“Illinois officials must be held accountable and show transparency for the broader electorate,” Salvi said.
Schuyler County Clerk Mindy Garrett told The Center Square she takes responsibility for the situation, calling it human error with no ill intent. She said they corrected the ballots immediately and within minutes began printing corrected ballots in house.
Garrett confirmed the 307 voters who were sent incorrect mail-in ballots will get corrected ballots. For the 45 in-person early votes, those ballots will be tabulated, but no votes will be counted for Peggy Hubbard.
***Courtesy of the Illinois Radio Network***
