According to the complaint, the “complainant alleges (s)he was placed in the wrong district and therefore did not get to vote for the proper candidates.”
Jared Thomas, press secretary for the Secretary of State, said in an interview Tuesday that all cases are different and the investigation does not have a timeline.
The case was an assigned an investigator Aug. 16. Thomas said he could not make any further comments about the details of the case.
“Our investigators receive it and then it’s an open investigation,” Thomas said. “We try to get all of the facts and move forward from there.”
Thomas said the ballot complaint is the only one in Cherokee County he is aware of at this time.
Cherokee County Elections Supervisor Janet Munda said she has not been contacted by an investigator.
“They have not called me, come in or anything,” Munda said.
She said if complaints are made to her office, her employees would perform an internal investigation.
“There has been no written complaint made to my office,” Munda said.
The voter, whose contact information was provided by the Secretary of State but who requested her name not be used, said she voted at the Cherokee County Elections Office in downtown Canton on July 17 during her lunch break.
“I noticed when I was voting, that I got to vote for (Sen.) Chip Rogers and I realized immediately that I wasn’t supposed to,” she said.
However, the voter continued through her Republican ballot and clicked submit. She said she then realized she did not get to vote for the Board of Education District 1 race even though she lives in the BridgeMill subdivision, which is entirely included in that voting district.
The voter said she discussed the issue with a poll worker but did not take any further action that day.
On July 31, the day of the primary election, the voter said she heard several others had the same issue and was told by friends to file a complaint with the Secretary of State.
“I sent an email to the Secretary of State and Cherokee Board of Elections,” the voter said. “About a week and a half later, I received a call from the state department and they said they would investigate.”
The voter said she did not remember the precise email address for the local elections board that she sent her complaint to, but found it on their website. She said those two emails were the only action she took in the matter.
With a 22-vote different in the District 1 outcome, the complainant said she felt she needed to say something.
“I was hoping since my candidate only lost by 22 votes that it was a widespread problem,” the voter said.
The voter said her husband, who voted on the day of the general election, did receive the correct ballot.
As for a conclusion to the matter, the voter said she hopes that if there is a problem with her ballot or others that it is promptly resolved.
“When it’s close like that, you’ve got to wonder,” the voter said. “My concern was people who didn’t realize … I didn’t realize until I hit the button and went, ‘wait a minute.’”
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