Ballot misprints in Zumbro Falls

Misprinted ballots

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(ABC 6 News) — After voters in Faribault County received ballots with misprints last week, Zumbro Falls voters are also seeing misprints on their ballots on Tuesday.

Voters were sent ballots with the 20A House race when they are in District 20B. Zumbro Falls votes entirely by mail.

The misprinted ballots left some Zumbro Falls voters with concerns with election integrity.

“It makes me wonder how often this is happening in the state and around the country,” Tammi Johnson, of Zumbro Falls said.

According to Wabasha County Administrator, Michael Plante, the misprinted ballots were a result of an error on the county level.

“We have a process in place to review the ballots, we followed that process, but there was a human error, and it was missed even with a double check,” Plante said.

So far, no misprinted ballots have been retuned, according to Plante.

County officials told ABC 6 News that they are working with the Secretary of State’s office to have those ballots spoiled and have new ones sent to those voters.

Rep. Pam Altendorf (R) was incorrectly put on the ballot, and even though it was a mistake at the county level, she wonders why Secretary of State Steve Simon is not doing more to prevent these mistakes.

“It’s the secretary of state’s responsibility to oversee elections, so there needs to be systems in place to assure this does not happen,” Altendorf said.

Simon did not respond to ABC 6’s request for comment Tuesday.

Plante said the county will be working to notify and get new ballots out to voters in Zumbro Falls voters as quickly as possible.