Vendor error causes delay of absentee ballots for some Greene Co. residents

GREENE COUNTY — Many Greene County voters who are hoping to use mail-in ballots are still waiting for those ballots to show up in their mailboxes.

News Center 7′s Mike Campbell spoke with voters and board of election leaders worried about anyone losing confidence in the voting system.

Greene County voters have been casting their ballots through early in-person voting for the last month without problems.

But around 7,000 voters that wanted to use mail-in ballots are having trouble.

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“We were trying to work with them, asking what is going on, they kept saying no, your ballots are out, your ballots are out,” Alisha Lampart said.

Alisha Lampart is the director of the Greene County Board of Elections.

She said she knew something was not right with her Akron-based ballot vendor when she started receiving multiple calls from concerned voters.

Bahns said his wife was one of those concerned voters calling in.

“She didn’t receive a response, didn’t get a ballot,” Tim Bahns said.

“It is very frustrating because we work incredibly hard, we are putting in 12 to 15-hour days,” Lampart said.

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Lampart and Assistant Director Llyn McCoy said the ballots were all printed correctly.

The problem was traced down to the vendor mislabeling the box with Greene County’s mail-in ballots, leading to it being set aside in a warehouse.

If you can’t get your mail-in ballot postmarked by the Monday deadline, you can drop it off at your local board of elections which is available until the polls close on Election Day.

If you vote in person at the polls on Election Day and requested a mail-in ballot you would have to cast a provisional ballot so workers can make sure it is only one vote per person.

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