UNION, Ky. – Union resident Kamryn Watt went to vote on Election Day without incident…or so it seemed.

After voting, her father mentioned that the Union had a question relating to medical cannabis in the city, and she remembered that question did not appear on the ballot she used.

“My mom would also say, ‘I didn’t understand that either,’” Watt said. “That’s when we were like, ‘What’s going on?’ Why can’t we vote on this? »

Watt wasn’t the only one who noticed something was wrong. Today, a week after the election, the Boone County Circuit Court granted City Commissioner and Union candidate Robert Bine the opportunity to challenge recent election results in the face of reports from residents claiming to have received bad ballots on Election Day.

“I’m a Union resident and I wasn’t able to vote on the issues I was supposed to vote on,” said Lina Shutts, another Union resident.

Court filings this week and last week indicate that Bine and Boone County Clerk Justin Crigler had received reports of improper distribution of ballots from residents of two different voting precincts of Boone County: Union Districts 1 and 4.

Affected local elections include the Union City Commission election — which Bine lost, according to unofficial Election Day results — and the city’s medical cannabis ballot question.

WCPO 9

WCPO 9

The clerk’s office filed a request for a recounton November 8. There are different versions of the day’s timeline of events, but the clerk’s petition lays out the broad outline of the situation.

Union Precinct 1 votes at the Union Firehouse, while Precinct 4 votes at Ryle High School. Despite their names, there are voters in both precincts who reside in the city as well as voters who do not, living instead in unincorporated Boone County. Voters are thus allocated different ballot papers, depending on where they live, even if they vote in the same constituency.

Election officials received the following number of ballots, according to the clerk’s petition:

• 500 printed ballots for Union 1 voters residing in the city, which contained spaces to vote on commissioner elections and the cannabis issue
• 1,750 ballots printed for Union 1 voters who do not reside in the city, which did not contain spaces for commissioner races and the cannabis issue
• 300 printed ballots for Union 4 voters residing in the city, which contained spaces to vote on commissioner elections and the cannabis issue
• 1,350 ballots for Union 4 voters who do not reside in the city, which did not contain spaces for commissioner races and the cannabis issue

The clerk’s office, according to the petition, received a phone call from election officials around 11:30 a.m. on Election Day, informing them they were out of ballots.
“While addressing the shortage, petitioner (the clerk) expressed concern that ballots may have been improperly distributed by election officials to voters at precincts,” reads the petition.

In response, the clerk shut down the voting machines in the precinct. Between 12:15 and 12:30 p.m., the clerk provided new scanners to the station.

The clerk recorded the following results on the closed machines: 238 voters from the town of Union and 759 voters from out of town requested ballots in Precinct 1. 176 voters from the town and 517 voters from out of town requested ballots in Precinct 4. .

“Since the polls closed, petitioner (the clerk) has received inquiries from concerned voters who indicated that they did not receive the correct ballots,” the petition states.

“It’s a double whammy that people who didn’t live in the Union voted on a Union ballot paper and people who live in the Union received a ballot paper that didn’t have their union commission, or their run for city commission, and the cannabis issue on that,” said Bine’s attorney, Steve Megerle.

Megerle believes the problems really started before the 11:30 a.m. phone calls to the clerk’s office. Bine’s motion to intervene (which essentially seeks court permission to challenge the election) names two Union residents, Jeff Bowman and Sarah Mayleben, who claim they received incorrect ballots during the vote.

“Jeff Bowman, a Union citizen, showed up to vote around 10 a.m. and was told by poll workers that the outstanding ballots were ‘incomplete’ and that he was missing the commission race municipal and the referendum on cannabis”, Reading of Bine’s court documents.

Mayleben, for her part, claims that election officials told her she must have voted incorrectly in the absence of a correct ballot.

“(Mayleben) showed up to vote for Union around 9:30 a.m. in the Union 1 precinct,” court documents state. “Election workers told all the voters in line that the precinct was out of ballots and that if you lived in unincorporated Boone County you could vote for the city. Ms. Mayleben heard an election official call the county election board to report the problems. Ms. Mayleben then witnessed election workers providing “unincorporated county ballots” to Union City voters. Ms. Mayleben declined the invitation to vote incorrectly, unlike many other voters, she was given the opportunity to return later to cast an effective vote for Union municipal commissioners.

Mayleben contacted Bine following this experience. Mayleben and Bowman could not be reached directly for comment.

Watt also called the clerk’s office to report what happened, then took to social media to see if anyone else had cast the wrong ballot. Shutt told LINK nky that she noticed other people talking about it in her neighborhood Facebook group.

The clerk is legally limited in what he can do to determine whether there was a problem with the ballots. He requested a recount from the court, admitting that a recount alone would not reveal whether or how many incorrect ballots were cast. As such, Judge Richard Brueggemann, in charge of the case, rejected the petitionarguing that it would be “futile”.

“It is indisputable that eligible voters within the city limits of Union voting in Union Precinct No. 1 and Union Precinct No. 4 were unintentionally disenfranchised,” Brueggemann wrote.

“This is an unfortunate situation that is being handled in a cooperative and efficient manner,” said Boone County Prosecutor Jordan Turner. “At this time, the Boone County Clerk is awaiting further direction from the Court to remedy the situation. »

Although there’s not much more the clerk can do at this point, voters and candidates can still challenge the election in court. The court granted Bine’s request for intervention on Monday. He has thirty days to officially challenge this decision in court. If such a challenge succeeds, it could potentially lead to a special election.

None of the parties involved believe there was fraud or insanity. Crigler described the situation to LINK nky as resulting from “human error.” Megerle agreed.

“We are not alleging that there was any fraud,” Megerle said. “We are not alleging that there were any criminal acts. You know, these elections are run by humans and their human errors. And unfortunately, this is a pretty significant human error on the part of the poll workers, either due to lack of training or lack of skill at these polling places.

Shutts is also skeptical that anything untoward is going on.

“I think it’s so hard to get people to volunteer to do things that maybe they’re not trained properly,” Shutts said. “I don’t know. I don’t know if they just didn’t get enough training, or if they were just happy to be here and do their job, you know, and they got it. somehow neglected.

The extent of the problem is currently unclear.

“It is unclear how many Union voters were mistakenly asked to vote without participating in the Union City Commission race,” Bine’s complaint reads. “At least 20 percent of Union City precincts had egregious irregularities, providing a good faith basis for electioneering beyond the recount requested by the County Clerk. It is also unclear how many voters were disenfranchised by showing up to vote and turned away and did not return due to uncertainty about whether they would be able to effectively vote for races related to Union City during the general election vote.

This story was originally published on our content partner’s LINK nky website.