Election error caused some Bismarck voters to receive wrong ballot

An error resulted in some Bismarck-area District 7 voters receiving a ballot that omitted the district’s legislative races early Tuesday. 

The error was caught and corrected by approximately 9:30 a.m. at the Liberty Elementary polling location, which opened at 7 a.m. Some District 7 voters had been erroneously handed a ballot for District 8, which does not have any legislative races on the ballot this year. 

“Some of them who got the wrong ballot, they came back and noticed they got the wrong ballot, and that was corrected. But there might have been some people who didn’t realize they had the wrong ballot,” said Aaron Birst, the election inspector on site. 

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Birst estimated around 120 people had voted before the error was corrected. About half used touch-screen voting machines, which were not affected. He said the error may have affected a maximum of 30 to 60 paper ballots. 

A dozen of those voters noticed they were handed a ballot for the incorrect district, alerted election workers, and were provided the correct version for where they lived. 

The error was ultimately traced to a mistake in how the paper ballots were organized before they were handed to voters. The polling location serves four precincts, two in District 7 and two in District 8, and each precinct has its own ballot version. Each version is kept in a separate stack of blank ballots, and election workers hand the appropriate version to a voter based on where they live.

Birst said two of those ballot versions became intermingled because the identifier number was very similar, resulting in some voters being handed a ballot for District 8 even though they live in District 7.  

Statewide races, including two ballot measures, were unaffected by the mistake. The only difference between the two ballot versions is whether District 7 House and Senate contests were included. 

There is no remedy for voters who put the wrong ballot into a tabulator, North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe said. 

“You’ve already cast a ballot,” Howe said. 

North Dakota’s top election official said he is incredibly frustrated and feels for voters who were unaware and for the candidates. Election officials sprang into action as soon as they could, he said.

“One error is too many,” said Howe, who added he wasn’t aware of similar errors elsewhere in the state. 

The ballot error is why election officials emphasize that voters view their sample ballot online so they know what races to expect, Howe said.

Sen. Michelle Axtman, R-Bismarck, and Democratic challenger Kevin Horneman are competing in the Bismarck Senate race. Republicans Steve Sauter and Greg Vetter are running for the two District 7 House seats, as are Democrats Jason Thoms and Tiffany Williams-Rice. 

Thoms said he’s thankful the error was caught early on Election Day. The Democratic candidate said the biggest issue is some voters may not have had the opportunity to vote for their next legislators. 

“It’s disappointing to hear a mistake was made,” Thoms said.

Axtman cast her ballot at Liberty Elementary Tuesday morning. She said she received several calls from voters who had received ballots without her name on it. The senator is confident the Secretary of State’s Office and county auditor will be able to determine the extent of the error. 

“Thankfully, I got a ballot with my name on it,” Axtman said. 

Department of Justice monitors

Howe said no issues were brought to his office’s attention regarding the U.S. Department of Justice election monitors in Cass County.

The election monitors were part of a nationwide effort coordinated by the department’s Civil Rights Division. It was the first time the Department of Justice has had Election Day monitors in all 50 states, the department said in a Tuesday statement.

The monitors planned to watch for compliance with federal voting rights statutes that protect the right to vote, according to the DOJ’s statement.

Three members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota volunteered for the program, said U.S. Attorney Nick Chase.

The League of Women Voters of North Dakota, which had 30 to 35 Election Day observers in Cass County, did not identify any concerns with the federal election monitors, said treasurer Carol Sawicki. The federal monitors visited multiple voting sites in Cass County.

“They didn’t get in the way. They didn’t disturb things. They were only there an hour, and they didn’t seem to question any of the voters that we knew about,” Sawicki said.

The Icon Sports Center in Grand Forks ran out of paper ballots for one district about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to a League of Women Voters observer. Voters could use express voting machines, but a long line developed. The observer saw three people leave without voting. 

The Native American Rights Fund sent 18 election observers to nine locations in North Dakota to monitor areas with significant Native American populations.

Jacqueline De León, senior staff attorney, said in an interview around 5 p.m. that the organization was alerted to a couple of minor issues in North Dakota, but those were resolved and the voters were able to cast their ballots.

This story was updated to add observations from a Grand Forks polling site.

North Dakota Monitor journalists Amy Dalrymple and Michael Achterling contributed to this report.