UNION, Ky. — Union resident Kamryn Watt went to vote on Election Day without incident… or so it seemed.
After casting her ballot, her father mentioned that Union had a ballot question relating to medical cannabis in the city, and she remembered that issue had not appeared on the ballot she used.
“My mom was also like, ‘I didn’t get that either,'” Watt said. “So that’s when we were kind of like, ‘What is going on? Why would we not get to vote on that?'”
Watt isn’t the only one who noticed something might have been off. Now, the week after the election the Boone County Circuit Court has granted Robert Bine, a Union city commissioner and candidate, the ability to challenge the recent election results in the face reports from residents claiming to have received the wrong ballots on Election Day.
“I am a Union resident, and I didn’t get to vote on the things I was supposed to get to vote on,” said Lina Shutts, another Union resident.
Documents filed in the court this week and last week indicate that both Bine and the Boone County Clerk, Justin Crigler, had received reports of incorrect ballot distribution from residents in two different Boone County voting precincts: Union precincts 1 and 4.
The local races affected include the races for the Union City Commission–which Bine lost, according to the unofficial results on Election Day–and the ballot question relating to medical cannabis in the city.
The clerk’s office filed a petition for a recounton Nov. 8. There are differing accounts of the timing of the day’s events, but the clerk’s petition lays out the broad strokes of the situation.
Union precinct 1 votes at the Union Firehouse, whereas precinct 4 votes at Ryle High School. In spite of their names, there are voters within the two precincts who reside in the city as well as voters who do not, living instead in unincorporated Boone County. Voters are thus assigned different ballots, depending on where they live, even if they vote at the same precinct.
Poll workers received the following number of ballots, according to the clerk’s petition:
- 500 printed ballots for Union 1 voters who live in the city, which contained spaces to vote on the commissioners’ races and the cannabis question
- 1750 printed ballots for Union 1 voters who do not live in the city, which did not contain spaces for the commissioners’ races and the cannabis question
- 300 printed ballots for Union 4 voters who live in the city, which contained spaces to vote on the commissioners’ races and the cannabis question
- 1350 ballots for Union 4 voters who do not live in the city, which did not contain spaces for the commissioners’ races and the cannabis question
The clerk’s office, according to the petition, got a phone call from poll workers around 11:30 a.m. on Election Day, informing the office they were running low on ballots.
“While addressing the shortage, Petitioner [the clerk] became concerned that ballots may have been incorrectly distributed by election officers to voters at the precincts” the petition reads.
In response, the clerk shuttered the voting machines at the precincts. Sometime between 12:15 p.m. and 12:30 p.m., the clerk provided new scanning machines to the precincts.
The clerk recorded the following results on the machines that been closed: 238 voters in the city of Union and 759 voters outside of the city requested ballots in precinct 1. 176 voters in the city and 517 voters outside of the city requested ballots in precinct 4.
“Since the polls have closed, the Petitioner [the clerk] has received inquiries from affected voters who have indicated that they were not provided with the correct ballots,” the petition reads.
“It’s a double whammy that you had people who didn’t live in Union voting a Union ballot and then people who did live in Union being given a ballot that didn’t have their Union Commission, or city commission race, and the cannabis question on it,” said Bine’s attorney, Steve Megerle.
Megerle believes the issues actually started before the 11:30 a.m. phone calls to the clerks office. Bine’s request to intervene (which essentially asks permission from the court to challenge the election) names two Union residents, Jeff Bowman and Sarah Mayleben, who claim to have received incorrect ballots in the course of voting.
“Jeff Bowman, a citizen of Union, presented to vote at approximately 10 a.m. and was told by poll workers the current ballots were ‘incomplete’ and lacked the city commission race and the cannabis ballot referendum,” Bine’s court documents read.
Mayleben, on the other hand, claims to have been told by poll workers that she should go ahead and cast an incorrect ballot in the absence of a correct ballot.
“[Mayleben] presented to cast a Union ballot at approximately 9:30 a.m. at Union 1 precinct,” court documents read. “Poll workers told all voters in line the precinct had run out of ballots and if you lived in unincorporated Boone County you could cast a city ballot. Ms. Mayleben overheard a poll worker calling the county board of elections to report the problems. Ms. Mayleben then witnessed poll workers providing ‘unincorporated county ballots’ to Union city voters to cast. Ms. Mayleben declined the invitation to cast the wrong ballot, unlike many other voters, she had the opportunity to return later to cast an effective vote for Union city commissioners.”
Mayleben contacted Bine following the experience. Mayleben and Bowman could not be directly reached for comment.
Watt also called the clerk’s office to report what had happened, and then took to social media to see if anyone else had gotten wrong ballots. Shutt told LINK nky that she noticed other people talking about it in her neighborhood’s Facebook group.
The clerk is legally constrained in what he can do to tease out if there was problem with the ballots. He requested a recount with the court, admitting that a recount alone would not provide insight into if and how many wrong ballots were cast. As such, Judge Richard Brueggemann, who had been assigned the case, rejected the petition, arguing it would be “futile.”
“It is undisputed that eligible voters within the City of Union limits voting at Union Precinct No. 1 and Union Precinct No. 4 were unintentionally disenfranchised,” Brueggemann writes.
“This is an unfortunate situation which is being addressed cooperatively and efficiently,” said Boone County Attorney Jordan Turner. ” At this time, the Boone County Clerk is awaiting further directives from the Court to address the situation.”
Although there’s not much more the clerk can do at this point, voters and candidates can still challenge the election through the court. The court granted Bine’s petition to intervene on Monday. He has thirty days to bring an official challenge before court. If such a challenge is successful, it could in time lead to a special election.
None of the parties involved believe there was fraud or foul play involved. Crigler described the situation to LINK nky as arising from “human error.” Megerle agreed.
“We’re not alleging that there was any fraud,” Megerle said. “We’re not alleging that there was any criminal acts. You know, these elections are ran by humans and their human error. And, unfortunately, this was a pretty significant human error by the poll workers, either by a lack of training or lack of proficiency at these polling stations.”
Shutts is likewise skeptical that there’s anything untoward going on.
“I think that it’s just so hard to get people to volunteer to do things that they’re maybe not trained properly,” Shutts said. “I don’t know. I don’t know whether they just didn’t get enough training, or they were just happy to be here and do their job, you know, and they just kind of overlooked it.”
The scope of the problem is currently unclear.
“It is unknown how many Union voters erroneously were told to cast ballots missing the Union city commission race,” Bine’s complaint reads. “At least 20% of City of Union precincts had gross irregularities providing a good faith basis for an election contest beyond the recount sought by the county clerk. It now is also unknown how many voters were disenfranchised by presenting to vote and turned away and did not return because of uncertainty they could actually cast an effective vote for the Union city related races on the General Election ballot.”
This story originally appeared on our content partner's website LINK nky.
