Election Employee Reassigned After 2 Costly Ballot Reprints

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Bud Knowles, administrator of elections, said an employee is being reassigned after a second ballot error was found necessitating a reprinting.

It marked the second time in less than a week that it was necessary to reprint some of the ballots.

Officials said the reprinting costs were about $24,000 and about $9,000.

Mr. Knowles said, "The individual responsible for the regrettable errors that occurred with our ballot omissions has been reassigned to other duties.

"A new set of workers with several years experience have been assigned to that position. These employees are committed to triple checking the accuracy of any ballots from this point on.

"I have held in-house training and am very comfortable with their knowledge. They know the value of getting the candidate information from the state website and will work closely with the Coordinator of Elections office to ensure an accurate ballot outlay."

The latest error was that an opponent of Rep. Zach Wamp was left off the Hamilton County Republican ballots. Teresa Sheppard of Luttrell is in that race.

The first error in which the U.S. Senate race was left off both Democratic and Republican ballots caused the reprinting of 140,000 ballots.

Officials said the redone ballots will be ready for the Aug. 7 voting.


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