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Holt County messes up Senate ballots

September 30, 2002
By: Julian Pecquet
State Capital Bureau

This may not be Florida, but Missouri is running into its own brand of electoral troubles.

Julian Pecquet has the story from Jefferson City.

One worried voter in Holt County called Missouri's elections division after receiving a surprise in the mail: an absentee ballot that shows Senate candidate Jean Carnahan running as a Republican and Jim Talent marked down as a Democrat.

Spence Jackson, the spokesman for the secreatry of state, says such mishaps or not unheard of.

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Holt County Clerk Sue Kneale says only a few ballots have been sent out to absentee and homebound voters, and the situation should be resolved quickly.

This year's most important Senate race could well be in Missouri. But at least one county isn't quite ready for the challenge.

Julian Pecquet has the story from Jefferson City.

The secretary of state has received a call from a voter in Holt County complaining that the county's ballots mixed up the political affiliations of Senate candidates Jim Talent and Jean Carnahan. Spence Jackson, the spokesman for secretary of state Matt Blunt, says Blunt doesn't think the incident warrants that his office sign off on the ballots prepared by Missouri's county clerks.

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Jackson says 16 voters had already received the faulty ballots before the mistake was realized.

Some voters in Holt County have already made up their minds about this year's Senate race: the county clerk needs to get her ballots right.

Julian Pecquet has the story from Jefferson City.

One worried voter called the secretary of state's to complain about ballots casting an unlikely race between Democrat Jim Talent and Republican Jean Carnahan. Secretary of state spokesman Spence Jackson says the 16 absentee voters who received the faulty ballots won't be deprived of their voting rights.

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Holt County Clerk Sue Kneale says the publishing company hired for the job will bear the cost of its mistake.