Dane County poll workers forced to adjust to faulty ballots

MADISON — Poll workers in Dane County will have to recopy votes from thousands of defective absentee ballots on Election Day next week.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported Saturday that a problem with the ballots' margin has caused trouble feeding the ballots through voting machines.

The county had about 150,000 ballots printed for the Aug. 9 primary. Almost all the defective ballots are in Madison wards.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said poll workers will open the faulty ballots on Election Day and mark new ballots with votes that correspond to those cast on the defective ballots. McDonell says such a practice is standard procedure when there are problems with the ballot or the voter makes a mistake.

The original ballots also will be kept for comparison in potential recounts.