Ballot Size Mix Up In 65 Illinois Counties

It's a major screw up in 65 of Illinois' 102 counties voting today in the statewide presidential primary election. It turns out that the ballots printed for these 65 counties are too wide to be fed through the optical scanners that count the votes. The counties affected by the printing error are primarily smaller counties where Rick Santorum's campaign was expected to perform the best, although there have been some reported problems in the suburban collar counties surrounding Cook County as well. Either the ballots will have to be hand-counted, or the ballots cut down to size so they can be fed through the machines. Either way, it's a colossal screw up that once again casts public doubts on the integrity of our election system. Follow this developing story at Rich Miller's Capitol Fax Blog.