Pottawatomie County Election Board Works To Fix Absentee Ballot Packet Error

A voter in Pottawatomie county says her ballot packed arrived in the mail incomplete. 

Voting by mail is nothing new to Janice Spicer. As a care giver to her 91-year-old parents, she has voted absentee for years. This year however, she noticed something wasn't quite right. 

"[I] got it done, was going to put it in the green envelope," Spicer recalls. "I looked, and there was no address on there." 

The address she's referring to is the address for the Pottawatomie County Election board. It is supposed to be printed on a white label on the front of the green return envelope. This time it was not. 

"I had this bad feeling," says Spicer. "I called down there to the election board and the girl said, 'Oh, they're supposed to have a label on them.' She told me, just write it in exactly right."

The Tecumseh resident feared she may not be alone, and she wasn't. Her parents' ballots were also missing the label, so was her daughter-in-law's ballot miles away in Shawnee. 

"I don't want to holler conspiracy or any of that kind of stuff, I just want people to be able to get their vote counted."

News 9 took Spicer's concerns to the Pottawatomie County Election Board. Election Board Secretary, Jeannie Stover said she understands tensions are high this election, and so are concerns over fraud. 

She assures voters there is nothing nefarious going on, the omittance was a mistake made while stuffing the envelopes in one precinct. 

"It's only about 40 people," Stover pointed out. "In putting everything in there we did neglect to put the return address on there." 

Stover added the election board heard from or reached out to as many of the affected voters as they could. Some voters, like Spicer, wrote in the address by hand. Others were mailed new labels. 

Stover says she also spoke with the postmasters in Shawnee and Tecumseh asking them to send the green envelopes to the election office whether they have a label or not. 

"They are already aware of this envelope and that it is election ballots enclosed," she said. "They both assured me they will give them to their clerks, and we will get all of them coming."

Stover pointed out their return address can be found on the outside of the packet envelope. She encourages anyone that has a question or a concern to call their office. 

The address for the Pottawatomie County Election Board is: 

14101 Acme Rd. 

Shawnee, OK 74809

When received, the ballots are scanned, and locked away in a secure box until they're ready to be counted.