Voting snafu regarding referendums in Island Lake

At least one Island Lake voter was handed the wrong ballot Tuesday morning and missed his chance to cast his vote in two referendums.

Island Lake Trustee Shannon Fox said that at about 7:30 a.m. her husband was given a ballot without the referendum questions when he voted at his Nunda Township Precinct 28 polling place in McHenry County. Island Lake has two referendum questions on the ballot — a proposition for the village clerk to be appointed by the mayor rather than elected, and an advisory question about building a combined public safety facility.

The McHenry County Clerk’s office distributed two ballots in Island Lake, because only people who live within the village of Island Lake can weigh in on the questions, officials said. People might have an Island Lake address but not live within the village limits.

“(My husband) cast his vote and called me after. He was stuck with what they gave him,” Fox said.

McHenry County Clerk Katherine Schultz said she found out about the issue after she got a message Tuesday morning from someone she thought was a pollwatcher.

“They distributed the wrong ballot,” she said. “To my knowledge, it was only one or two people. My judges have listings and applications that tell them what to hand out. How they handed out the wrong ballot, I have no idea.”

Fox said that when she went to vote about 30 minutes later at 8 a.m., the election judges were aware of the situation, and gave her the correct ballot with the two referendum questions.