Hundreds of electronic ballots emailed from Palm Beach County, Florida, last week incorrectly listed “Tom Walz” as the Democratic nominee for vice president, rather than the correct name, Tim Walz, an elections official has revealed.
According to The New York Times, the blunder affected 257 ballots sent to service members and voters overseas, as confirmed by county elections supervisor Wendy Sartory Link.
Link, a Democrat who’s also running for reelection, said her office discovered the error just 18 hours after the ballots were distributed. Voters were quickly notified and given the chance to download an updated ballot.
Palm Beach County favored Joe Biden in the 2020 election, although Donald Trump took the state overall. Current polling from FiveThirtyEight shows Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris by about 4% in the Sunshine State.
Don't Miss
This isn’t the first time Palm Beach County has faced ballot issues. In the 2000 election, the infamous butterfly ballot is thought to have caused confusion, leading many Democratic voters to mistakenly vote for Reform candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore, contributing to a narrow victory for George W. Bush. And in 2018, a recount snafu with the county’s machines resulted in missing the deadline to submit results.
Link explained that the recent mishap was due to a local vendor making a “manual typed change” to an otherwise accurate ballot. She reassured voters that whether they see “Tom Walz” or “Tim Walz,” their votes for the Democratic ticket will still be counted correctly.
