Politics

'Utter Stupidity' To Blame For Blank Ballots

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Now for a lighter moment on this Super Tuesday. CBS 2's Pam Zekman reports on a bizarre incident at a precinct polling place. It happened in the 42nd precinct of the 49th ward, on the lakefront, when judges of the election handed voters plastic styluses to mark up paper ballots. They're calling it the "case of the invisible ink."

The call for help came into the city Board of Elections boiler room, where complaints are handled. The head of the board, Langdon Neal, told CBS 2 about the fiasco.

Holding up one of the styluses, Neal said, "This is not a pen. It has no ink. It has no lead. So, the voters were told to mark the paper ballot with this utensil. As a result there was nothing on the ballot. The judges then told the voters that that was OK because it was invisible ink. They then put it in the equipment, the equipment worked right, rejected the ballot as an unmarked ballot, a blank ballot. The judges then pushed the override button."

When asked if he thought this was somehow a malicious mistake Neal said, "We did send investigators out to make sure there was no malicious intent and we are convinced that it was just utter stupidity."

The investigators have reached six of the 20 voters who were not able to have their vote count. They hope to reach the rest before the polls close.

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