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'Printing error' causes incomplete ballot, ACLU of KY speaking out

The error left off Amendment 2, which is on abortion, and the ballot was partially missing Amendment 1, which would take power away from the governor.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With only one week until Election Day, the ACLU of Kentucky is calling out the Jefferson County Clerk's Office after a voter received an incomplete ballot in the mail.

Erran Huber, spokesperson for the Jefferson County Board of Elections, said it was a printing mistake and the problem was corrected after the voter reported it.

He said the person who received the incomplete ballot did cast their ballot in person and the original ballot was not counted.

Huber said the error left off Amendment 2, which is on abortion, and the ballot was partially missing Amendment 1, which would take power away from the governor.

According to Huber, there has only been one such error in the county this election season and he said the office will send out more than 15,000 mail-in ballots.

“This came down to a printer error,” Huber said. “There was nothing nefarious involved; there was nothing that anyone really needs to worry about in terms of election integrity, because we're on it.”


After the misprint, Huber said the office also enhanced its review process; however, he said the team would have caught the mistake anyway because they review each mail in ballot when it's returned.

“If there is an anomaly, that ballot is then set aside for review by a bipartisan team,” Huber said. “So if there was an instance where there was an inconsistency with the ballot, we would know.”

The ACLU of Kentucky said they want to see more election security and transparency.
In a letter Monday to the Board of Elections, the organization listed four steps they'd like to see taken:

  • First, the County Clerks office should provide a full accounting of the misprinting error. This should include the magnitude of the error, which questions/candidates were impacted by misprints, and what is being done so this does not occur again (during this or future elections), as well as confirmation that the ballots that will be used for in-person voting have been checked for any similar printing errors. 
  • Second, the County Clerks office should confirm that it will continue to inspect each returned ballot, and that mail-in ballots which are returned but lack Amendment 2 on them will be segregated from other ballots. It will be critical to identify the total number of invalid ballots to identify whether those ballots may have impacted the results of a close election.
  • Third, the County Clerks office must make accessible a list of Jefferson County voters who requested a mail-in ballot. The list should be made accessible to any campaign working on an amendment question. If necessary, we ask the State Board of Elections to implement emergency regulations to allow such access. 
  • Fourth, the County Clerks office should describe whether voters will receive any notification if their ballot is deemed defective, and whether there will be any opportunity to fix such a defective ballot.


"They're really important to make sure people aren't losing their right to be heard in this very important election,” Corey Shapiro, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said.

Shapiro said the voter in this case knew what to look for and saw what was missing from the ballot, but he said not everyone will.

"Just by having this conversation, we're able to sort of amplify that message that hey, make sure we're all looking for that when we go to vote because it really is an important issue,” Shapiro said.

In an interview Monday with WHAS11, Secretary of State Michael Adams said it is important to look at a sample ballot and make sure it looks the same. He said misprints happen every election season, in small numbers.

Amendment 2 has been a hot topic this election season. If passed, it would add a line in the Kentucky constitution that would make abortion illegal in the state.

The amendment reads: "To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion."

 ► Contact reporter Bobbi McSwine at BMcSwine@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter 

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