MI - Mistake Delays Ballots

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Mistake Delays Ballots

Saturday, July 15, 2000

By CHONG PYEN NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Several area municipalities using Accu-Vote voting devices will get their absentee ballots for the Aug. 8 primary by July 20, two weeks later than scheduled, due to a printer's mistake, according to Washtenaw County Clerk Peggy M. Haines, clerk/register of deeds.

When the first batch of ballots was delivered to some cities and townships, they were found to be incompatible with the voting devices, prompting the county to replace the printer, Fidlar Doubleday Co. of Kalamazoo, Haines said.

New ballots will be printed by Inland Press of Detroit, which prints ballots for Optech scanning devices used by some municipalities.

Affected by the Accu-Vote delay are: the cities of Milan, Saline and the townships of Ann Arbor, Augusta, Bridgewater, Dexter, Freedom, Lima, Lodi, Lyndon, Manchester, Northfield, Pittsfield, Salem, Saline, Scio, Sharon, Superior, Sylvan, Webster and York.

The cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, which use Optech devices, and Ypsilanti Township, which uses punch cards, are not affected by the printer's error and will use the ballots they received July 7.

The county has canceled a purchase order with Fidlar Doubleday for $9,747 after the ballots failed accuracy tests, Haines said.

Sue Cowen, chief assistant clerk/register of deeds, attributed the rejected ballots to incompatible dots per inch that determine the density of image for scanning. More than 61,000 ballots were spoiled, she said.

"It is my top priority to ensure the citizens of Washtenaw County that accurate and usable ballots are delivered for use in the primary election," Haines said.

http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20000714awcballots.frm

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), July 16, 2000


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