PoliticsAmerica Votes

Actions

Who? Ballots resent to overseas voters after Gov. Tim Walz's name is misspelled

The typographical error will not impact the tabulation of the electronic ballots, according to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections.
Tim Walz Sept 2024
Posted

Over 250 electronic ballots that were sent from Palm Beach County to military and overseas voters had democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz’s name misspelled.

According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, some of the ballots had the Minnesota governor’s name as “Tom” instead of “Tim.”

The error was addressed within 18 hours of the ballots being emailed, and the affected voters who had not yet submitted their completed ballot were notified, the office said.

RELATED STORY | Why voting by non-U.S. citizens is not a 'serious problem'

The typographical error will not impact the tabulation of the electronic ballots and the votes will still count in the way the voters intended, the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections said in a statement to Scripps News.

Prior to the ballots being emailed to the overseas voters, the office said they sent an approved ballot to their vendor and the vendor made a manual type change to Walz’s name on the ballot without authorization.

“The Elections office was not aware the vendor made a manual change to the ballot after the approved and final version had been sent to them,” the office said.

RELATED STORY | If Trump loses, would he run again? Here's what he said about 2028

The misspelling was first reported by The New York Times, which said a concerned voter overseas sent it a screenshot of the affected ballot.

The elections office said no additional military and overseas ballots or domestic ballots would be impacted by the mistake.