Published: November 08, 2008 03:25 pm      

Hamilton Co. tosses 130 uninitialed paper ballots

CARMEL, Ind. (AP) — The pressures of dealing with an unusually high voter turnout and poll workers’ inexperience with paper ballots have resulted in at least 130 ballots from Tuesday’s election being tossed out, an election official said.

The paper ballots, used to speed up voting because of a heavy turnout at Carmel’s University High School, were discarded Tuesday night because poll workers didn’t initial them as required by state law, said Tory Callaghan Castor, president of the Hamilton County Election Board.

She chalked up the mistake to the high turnout and inexperience. Throughout most of Election Day, voters at the school endured lines several hours long before being able to cast their ballots.

“I don’t fault any of our volunteers,” Callaghan Castor said. “The code is very specific, and there were some unfortunate consequences.

“The role of the election board is to preserve the integrity of the election process. That’s our highest priority. Unfortunately, sometimes that results in circumstances we don’t like.”

The Election Board’s decision to toss the paper ballots didn’t appear to sway any races. The ballot in the precinct included no contests that were close enough for the paper ballots to have made a difference.