By Deb Patterson
InkFreeNews
KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — No special election requests have been filed with Kosciusko County courts after an honest mistake by a poll worker during the primary election, May 7.
A total of 104 voters, who went to the vote center at Community Life Center, North Harrison Street, Warsaw, received the wrong ballots during the primary. Those wrong ballots could have made a difference in the Precinct Committeeman race for Warsaw Ward 1 Precinct 1 between incumbent Beverly Brown and Michael Foster, and three Republican Convention Delegates.
Brown lost to Foster, 39 to 48, a difference of nine votes. There was also a narrow margin between the District 3 Republican Delegates. On election night, results indicated Monica Boyer received 1,189 votes; Sharon K. Wilson, 1,130; Lynn S. Howie, 1,063; Anne Bonewitz, 939; David Bonewitz, 818; Shawn Brown, 807; Ashley McGinnis, 801; Mikie Crate, 724; and Alan Tio, 625. Voters could choose five of the candidates. The difference between David Bonewitz and Shawn Brown is 11 votes and only 17 votes between Bonewitz and McGinnis.
“It was an honest mistake,” said Ann Torpy, county clerk.
Torpy explained a Democrat poll judge gave voters ballots for the precinct in which the vote center was located instead of the precinct in which the voter lived. This occurred between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. at which time a voter brought to the poll workers attention the names he knew was to be on his ballot were not there.
The exact number of voters it affected was not known election night, not until a poll pad could be checked. The poll pad records those who voted and precincts at each center.
This was done during the certification of votes by the county election board Friday, May 17.
Torpy explained after the election board was notified the afternoon of the primary, there was “nothing that could be done. We didn’t know what voters.” They had to wait to see what the numbers were before anything could be determined.
Torpy noted this error had no affect on county races, and no real affect on state or federal races. The only races it affected were those for Warsaw Ward 1 Precinct 1 and the District 3 convention delegates, which are voted on by the same districts as the county council seats.
Mike Ragan, county Republican Chairman, upset by not being told of the error until the certification of the votes, stated it was really to late to call for a special election. “It’s too close to the convention to do anything. If we knew the night it happened, we could be able to do something. But it didn’t come out until Friday after they certified the votes at 11 a.m.
Delegates had already registered and paid fees for the convention, that is a month away. A special election could take weeks or months to complete.
The candidates themselves did not know of the issue until being notified after the election board meeting.
Ragan stated he visited 14 of the 21 vote centers, including Community Life Center after the error was discovered, on election day and asked the same question at each center – how was it going. He was never told at that center there had been a problem.
“So we have two to three going to the convention who may or may not have won. We have a precinct committeeman of 28 years, no longer serving.”
