Sioux Falls, SD (KELO AM) - Minnehaha County Commissioners voted 4-to-1 to approve the county’s election results from Tuesday, a vote that is usually a 5-to-0 formality. Commissioner Jeff Barth expressed great displeasure with the handing of Tuesday’s results – from the delay in getting the results in to voters getting incorrect absentee ballots.
“I have reason to believe that dozens of people may have gotten the wrong ballot” said Barth, referring not only to voters getting incorrect absentee ballots through the mail, but also incidents where voters received wrong ballots at their polling places. Auditor Bob Litz said that was not the case, instead some voters dropped their ballots in the wrong collection box for their precinct. He went on to say those incidents were corrected by the high-speed vote counting machines rejecting the ballots, then a review from the resolution board.
Barth was also vocal about the delay in reporting the election totals. “The speed on this whole count was ridiculous” he said, referring to the absentee ballot debacle that led to a pile of ballots being hand counted for nearly 12 hours.