The Registrars of Voters want to remind the community to completely fill in the oval for the candidates of their choice in this November’s election, and also in future elections.
On Wednesday, the Registrars completed a state-mandated audit of ballots from one voting District. In the audit, it was determined that one ballot may not have been properly counted because the voter failed to fill in the ovals. Instead, the voter made checkmarks on the ballot.
“If you spend the time to come to the polling place and to carefully select candidates, please take the extra 20 seconds necessary to completely fill-in the oval to make certain your vote is properly counted,” said Fred DeCaro III, Republican Registrar of Voters.
In the example provided by the Registrars’ Office, the voter made checkmarks, which covered less than half of the oval, and did not cover the center of the oval. “While it’s clear to the human eye what the voter intended, the computer could interpret the check as a stray mark. We think the tabulator may not have counted a vote for Mr. Duus and a vote for Mrs. Weissler.”
Michael Aurelia, Democratic Registrar of Voters, added that ballots are only checked by humans in the event of a close vote recount. But whether a close vote or not, “we want to make sure that every vote is counted as intended. Please help us do that by reading the instructions on the ballot and completely filling out the ovals.”
