Mail Delay Leads to Multiple Ballot Mishap for Evansville Voter

Mail Delay Leads to Multiple Ballot Mishap for Evansville Voter

He got his first ballot at the end of August but after a mismark, getting a new ballot turned into nearly two months of back and forth with the elections office and USPS.

Our 44news team is out covering all the stories impacting - your right to vote.

First -- we go to --valerie lyons.

She is live in evansville -- after speaking with a local voter -- that says -- they received multiple mail-in ballots.

That's right jessica -- he got his first ballot at the end of august -- and after a mis-mark --- getting a new ballot turned into nearly two months -- of back and forth with the elections office and usps.

One of the most anticipated elections of our lifetime -- shrouded in pandemic fears -- with a record number of voters.

Evansville voter sean o'daniel is one of more than a million hoosiers voting by mail this year.

After receiving his ballot -- he started to fill it out -- but realized he made a mistake -- "so i called the election board office and they said yes, we know what to do with that, you need to bring it in, you have to surrender it to us."

So the clerk's office mailed out a new one -- but when he still hadn't received it after a week -- and the post office didn't know where it was -- he went back to the elections office --requesting another one.

"i said well let's try three's a charm."

And it was.

The next day he got it -- and the original replacement -- at the same time.

The reason -- one wrong digit.

"i didn't correct it on the sheet.

That's what i needed to do.

I should have corrected that zip code."

But human error is bound to happen at one point or another -- so i asked the county clerk -- what happens when your request gets doubled?

"we only allow one vote to count per voter.

That's what the system tracks.

Which ones have been sent, which ones came back."

((multiple mail-in ballots)) she says it's not uncommon to get multiple requests -- and if this happens -- there's no need to worry.

"we would show that the ballot had been canceled that was initially sent and then it would have been overridden by the second one."

And for extra piece of mind -- the clerk's office takes that check one step further -- "we would also contact the voter if at all possible just to ensure that that is correct that the one we received is not the one we should be counting."

So after weeks of back and forth -- o'daniel will finally get to cast his vote and despite the mishap -- he says he still prefers mail in voting -- "i'll take this option before i come into the groups, until this virus has a vaccine."

The county clerk says -- ballot mis- marks happen all the time -- so to try and avoid them altogether -- she suggests taking your ballot and filling it out in a quiet space -- away from others -- and to go through your choices first with pencil -- then go back over with pen.

Live in evansville -- vl44news.