Another county in the state of Minnesota has sent voters erroneous ballots, bringing the total number of affected counties to four.
In a filing with the Minnesota Supreme Court last Friday, Murray County Auditor-Treasurer Heidi Winter cited a “clerical error” as the reason why midterm general election ballots were distributed with outdated district numbers for the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives races.
Due to redistricting, Murray County’s state Senate and House district numbers were changed from 22 and 22A to 21 and 21A. But the ballots sent to voters were still printed with 22 and 22A.
The filing states that 1,884 registered voters in 18 of the county’s 29 precincts received mail-in ballots with the incorrect district number printed. In those 18 precincts all registered voters automatically receive mail-in ballots.
Murray County has now joined Kittson, Roseau, and Ramsey counties in dealing with erroneous ballots.
In Kittson and Roseau counties, ballots sent to voters failed to identify party affiliation for all federal and state offices besides governor, along with the incumbency status of judges.
In Ramsey County, ballots incorrectly including the name of a deceased candidate were sent to 1,198 voters, though the Minnesota Supreme Court has already asked the county to print and resend corrected ballots.
Republican Party of Minnesota communications director Nick Majerus took aim at Secretary of State Steve Simon for remaining “completely silent” as another county scrambles to fix erroneous ballots.
“He runs around the state doing photo-ops posing as a ‘defender of democracy,’ but on Simon’s watch, voters can’t even get the right ballots after voting has been open for weeks. How many more Minnesota voters need to get the wrong ballots before Steve Simon steps up to do his job?” he said in a Tuesday statement.
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
