Thousands of Schuylkill County residents have already turned in their Absentee or Mail-in ballots for the 2020 General Election.
And thousands of residents probably didn’t notice the spelling error printed on their ballot.
We missed it. And about a week ago, we looked at ballots in numerous municipalities before publishing our article showing you the sample ballots for the upcoming vote.
You’ll probably kick yourself when you see it. It’s only in the most prominent race on the ballot this November 3.
Not sure if you heard or not, but we’re voting for President and Vice President … or is it President and Vice Presedent?
It’s definitely President and Vice President. But that’s not what Schuylkill County ballots are showing this year. Our ballots have it the other way, the wrong way.
Kaylee Lindenmuth, the publisher of The Shenandoah Sentinel, says she got a similarly misspelled Absentee ballot. She was the one who spotted this first and said something.
That ballot isn’t the only one. In fact, they’re all misspelled in Schuylkill County.
Here’s a look at the ballot for Minersville’s 2nd precinct:
[pdf-embedder url=”https://coalregioncanary.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/0043-Minersville-2nd.pdf” title=”0043 Minersville 2nd”]
We can assure you that all the other ballots in Schuylkill County are marked similarly. If you don’t believe it, go check it out for yourself “on the county’s internet”, as they say up there at the Courthouse.
The Commissioners haven’t mentioned anything about spending more money on revised ballots. So, it’s fair to assume these will be the same ballots voters will get at the polls for in-person voting.
Who Did It?
So, who’s responsible for this spelling error on the 2020 General Election ballot?
That would fall on the Schuylkill County Election Bureau and ultimately, the County Commissioners. You can see their signatures on the bottom of the ballot. They signed off on this.
The County Election Bureau recently underwent an overhaul. Longtime director Fran Brennan retired after the Primary Election in June. She was recently replaced by Al Gricoski, who resigned from a job in the Prothonotary’s office recently because of what he said were family commitments. However, he was re-hired by the County soon after for this job as Election Bureau director.
What’s This Mean?
The big question here is, what happens now? Likely, nothing.
Luckily, at least it seems based on past similar incidents, a spelling error on a ballot really only matters if it involves a candidate’s name. And even then, the misspelling generally has to “misrepresent” the candidate.
The error on the Schuylkill County ballot does not. Therefore, this is just a goof and won’t invalidate the ballot or your vote.
This issue actually just came up about a week ago in Franklin County, NY. On the Democrat Party ticket, Vice President candidate Kamala Harris’ name is spelled “Kamal” and omits the last A.
It happened in Arkansas, too. David Alan Bubbus is running for Little Rock Board of Directors but on the ballot, his name will appear as “David Alan Bubbas”. The candidate explained that it wasn’t the first time his name was misspelled. Efforts have been made to notify the public of the error that will appear on their ballots there.
ALSO READ:
- The Canary’s Latest Election Prediction: Trump 338, Biden 200
- Vote 2020 – Schuylkill County Polling Locations for the General Election
- Vote 2020 – Schuylkill County Sample Ballots
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