Tolbert: Glitch In Washington County Leads To No Party Labels On Ballots

by Jason Tolbert ([email protected]) 122 views 

Early voting kicked off today and as usual there was a glitch.

It seems like there is always at least one somewhere. This year, it was in Washington County where the touch screens in early voting failed to identify the party labels of the candidates running.

“The problem was that the party affiliation for the candidates wasn’t showing up on the screen,” said Washington County Clerk Becky Lewallen. “A paper printout of the candidates and party affiliation was taped to each touch screen. I believe that it should be fixed on the touch screens tomorrow.”

Lewallen said that the Washington County Election Commission is working to address the issue.

Of course, the problem could have an effect on several elections particularly down the ballot in races where voters many times rely on party identification in making their vote.

In addition to the eight statewide general elections, two county elections are underway in Washington County, including the County Judge race between Democratic incumbent Marilyn Edwards and Republican challenger Assessor Jeff Williams and the Sheriff’s race between Democratic incumbent Tim Helder and Republican challenger Mort Marshall.