4 botched absentee ballots, 4 fixed: District 62 state house race between Hall, Horrocks
A Thursday (Oct. 3) news release from Monroe County election supervisor Kylie Farris reported that an initial wave of absentee ballots sent out by the county’s election division included four ballots with an error, which had been corrected, re-printed, and re-sent to the four affected voters.
The four voters were notified by mail that they were entitled to cast the new ballot with the correction made, according to the news release.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Responding to a B Square question on Thursday, Farris said the error involved the state house race for the ballots printed for the one Polk Township precinct. Polk Township is so sparsely populated that it has just one precinct.
Instead of indicating the choices for the District 62 state house race, the Polk precinct ballots showed the District 46 race, Farris said. District 62 includes a swath of southern Monroe County that includes the southeastern corner, which is Polk Township.
The District 62 race is between incumbent Republican Dave Hall and Democrat challenger Thomas Horrocks.
The District 62 state house race is expected to be close. Two years ago, Hall prevailed in the race between him and Democrat Penny Githens, which was close enough that a recount was done.
In 2022, out of 14 mailed-in absentee votes in the Polk precinct, Hall received 4 and Githens 10.
Responding to a B Square question, Farris said it was Dave Hall who caught the ballot error. Confirming that to the B Square was Hall, who said that he had not been able to attend the public ballot inspection, which was held in mid-September. But Hall spotted the mistake based on the ballot samples he’d asked to be sent to him.
Early in-person voting for the Nov. 5 election starts next Tuesday, Oct. 8.
In Monroe County early in-person ballots are cast at the election operations building (aka the old NAPA store) at 3rd and Walnut streets, across from the downtown transit center.
The last day to register to vote is Oct. 7.
