Ballot error means 250 didn't get local races

An estimated 250 northern Kane County voters were issued ballots Tuesday that omitted local races because of errors by election judges, Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham said Friday.

But the mistake did not affect the outcome of any races, Cunningham said.

Voters in Dundee Township precincts 6 and 10 and Elgin Township precinct 39 received federal ballots, a style intended for so-called "inactive" voters whose registration has been suspended because they have not voted in several election cycles. Federal ballots only list candidates for federal office, such as president, Congress and party delegate.

The ballots did not include local contests for the judicial subcircuit, precinct committeeman and county board, among other races.

"Even though the error rate for this election is about 1 percent, and the outcomes of this election are not affected, this type of error is not acceptable, and I take full responsibility and will work very hard to strengthen and improve training for all of the county's election judges," Cunningham said.

After reviewing the data and conferring with the Kane County state's attorney's office, Cunningham attributed the mistake to human error and will study whether installing a scanning feature on the eSlate voting system would eliminate the possibility of such errors.

The mistake might have been an unintentional consequence of the simultaneous scheduling of the general primary and the special primary to choose a candidate to fulfill former U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert's unexpired term, an issue that caused confusion at the polls.