Custer County Clerk Kelly Jacobsen says a higher than expected voter turnout during Tuesday’s November 3 election brought about the use of photocopied ballots so that all eligible voters had a chance to cast a ballot.
A Wednesday press release went on to explain that the use of photocopied ballots is standard practice in situations like what happened in Custer County, and that as a result approximately 800 election day ballots still need to be counted.
Additional official ballots are currently being printed by Election Systems & Software. Once they arrive, votes that were cast on photocopied ballots will be transferred to official ballots by a bipartisan team and added to the current vote totals.
Jacobsen said the goal is to ensure the counting process is transparent, accurate, and secure. Updated on the progress of the vote count will be provided as more ballots are processed.
A notice shared by The Arnold Sentinel on Wednesday detailed an identified issue affecting some voters in the Village of Arnold. The social media post says that Jacobsen indicated that the Arnold Village Board contest was inadvertently included on the ballot for voters not residing within the Village of Arnold.
The post went on to say that all voters residing within the Village of Arnold got ballot style 3.01. A bipartisan counting board is in the process of separating 3.02 and 3.04 ballot style results that incorrectly included the Village of Arnold contest. Jacobsen said that while the process may take longer, her office is confident the results for the Village of Arnold can be isolated to reflect only votes cast by eligible voters.
Those with questions are asked to call the Custer County Election Office or Custer County Clerk Kelly Jacobsen at 308-872-5701.
