The Park County Elections Office has corrected a small number of primary election ballots in rural Powell that initially included the wrong legislative race. Because only a handful of voters live in that area — and because the mistake was caught quickly — no incorrect ballots were cast and the election results will not be affected in any way.

“We feel awful about the mistake, but we’re thankful that we were able to completely fix it,” said First Deputy Park County Clerk Hans Odde. “Only two of the incorrect ballots were issued to voters and they have been reissued. There will be no impact on our election.”

The problem had its origins in this year’s redistricting process, in which the Wyoming Legislature redrew the boundaries of the state’s House and Senate districts. The Powell area saw multiple changes, being divided between House districts 25, 26 and 50.

As part of the redistricting process, residents who live near the base of Polecat Bench were moved from the Powell-based House District 25 into House District 26, which stretches east into Big Horn County. The Park County Elections Office correctly updated its precinct maps to reflect the change. The office also sent a letter to the 18 registered voters in Precinct 10-1-2, notifying the residents that they’d been moved into HD 26. However, when county elections personnel created the Republican and Democratic ballots for that precinct split last month, they mistakenly included it in House District 50, which is a part of Senate District 18. (The voters in 10-1-2 actually remain in SD 19, which is up for election this year.)

Fortunately, the first — and only — voters to receive the incorrect ballots noticed that their ballots had the wrong legislative race, and they contacted the elections office on Friday, July 8. Elections personnel immediately began working to reprogram the election and fix the 10-1-2 ballots. That work wrapped up on the evening of Wednesday, July 13. The two voters who received the incorrect ballots and caught the error were issued new ballots on Thursday, July 14.

“We appreciated the voters’ patience while we fixed this — and we really appreciate their vigilance,” Odde said. “Park County is fortunate to have voters who pay close attention and help ensure our elections are conducted with integrity.”

Early voting for the primary election was already underway at the courthouse when the error was discovered. Since the election programming was updated to reflect the change in 10-1-2, the voting machine that had been receiving early votes had to be taken out of service. The 170 ballots cast on that machine were securely transferred to a new ballot scanner programmed with the corrected information; the new machine underwent two days of thorough testing before being certified and put in service.

“Straightening this out took time, but it was critical that we got it right,” said Odde.

Early voting was not interrupted and will continue at the Park County Courthouse during regular business hours through Aug. 15. Primary Election Day is Aug. 16.

With 43 different precincts and splits within Park County, and different ballots for Republican, Democratic and unaffiliated voters, there are a total of 114 different ballot styles for the primary election. Sample ballots are available online at parkcounty-wy.gov/county-elections/.