APPLETON (NBC 26) -- A technical ballot misprint will likely delay counting of some absentee ballots on Election Night in Outagamie County.
The misprint is a scratch no longer than a fingernail on one of the timing marks at the bottom right edge of the ballot. It will not impact the contests, candidates or referendums on the ballots, said Lori O’Bright, Outagamie County County Clerk.
No action is required of voters if their ballot has this misprint, said O’Bright.
Approximately 24,600 ballots have this issue, she said. Municipalities discovered the misprint through preliminary testing of polling place equipment.
“This is a perfect example of why we have testing procedures in place,” said O’Bright. “We identified the problem, quickly corrected it and will be working closely with the WI Elections Commission through Election Day to ensure all of the impacted ballots will be counted.”
Again, O’Bright stresses, voters don’t need to do anything if they suspect their ballot may have this misprint and they already mailed it back, or if they have yet to fill it out and discover it. The misprint issue just means it will take poll workers longer to process ballots on Election Day because every ballot that has the scratch will need to be duplicated by two workers.
The following municipalities report the misprint: Appleton, city of Kaukana, Seymour, Grand Chute, Harrison, Bovina, Deer Creek, Hortonville, Hortonia, Liberty, Main, Maple Creek, Shiocton, Buchanan, Combined Locks, Little Chute, Center, Cicero, Ellington, Freedom, town of Kaukana, Oneida and Kimberly.