Absentee voting errors: Duplicate ballots, Harris omitted, parties flipped

Errors in sending out absentee ballots have been reported by several cities across the U.S. Wisconsin has experienced thousands of duplicate ballots sent to voters, while Minnesota has listed local candidates under the wrong party affiliation. In addition, a typo in Tim Walz’s name and the omission of Kamala Harris’ name occurred on ballots sent to overseas and military voters.

Election officials have since rectified these issues and state that the errors will not impact the votes.

Absentee voting began last week in Wisconsin, where the city of Madison sent 2,215 ballots to voters twice. Initially, officials indicated that only one ward was affected, but that number quickly rose to 10.

Madison’s Communications Director Dylan Brogan emphasized the city’s transparency regarding the mistake and assured that safeguards are in place to prevent duplicate votes from being cast.

“The City of Madison really prides itself on being extremely transparent in our election administration,” Brogan said. “On the day we found out a clerical error occurred, we immediately reached out to voters. Each absentee ballot has unique barcodes and can only be scanned once. If it’s scanned twice, it’s rejected.”

Minnesota is also facing ballot errors, with two candidates for a state house seat having their party affiliations flipped on ballots sent to Faribault County voters. In Wabasha County, voters are receiving ballots with incorrect district races listed. Local election officials are going through the courts to reprint the ballots in both cases.

In Florida, West Palm Beach County encountered a typo in electronic ballots emailed to military and overseas voters, incorrectly listing Walz’s name as “Tom” on about 250 ballots. The local elections office stated that this error would not affect the proper tabulation of votes and assured that every vote would count as intended.

In Montana, Harris’ name was omitted from ballots in the state’s electronic absentee system for military and overseas voters, but the issue was resolved hours after it was reported.

The errors have prompted reactions from both political parties, with some Republicans calling for an investigation into the duplicate ballots in Wisconsin and some Democrats demanding the firing of election officials in Montana over the omission of Harris’ name. With just 40 days until Election Day, the errors have heightened scrutiny over election security.