BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WBRC) – Incorrectly printed ballots kept many people in St. Clair County to vote for hours on Election Day. On Tuesday morning, election workers discovered that the ballots did not include local amendments after opening the sealed boxes of the printer, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), according to Probate Judge Andrew Weathington, who oversees elections in County St. Clair.

The problem in St. Clair County is similar to what happened in Jefferson County in March during the primary election. He the ballots that Jefferson County received for the Brighton precinct were incorrect, although the evidence they received from the printing press at that site was correct.

Most Alabama counties, including Jefferson and St. Clair, use ES&S to print ballots.

Alabama law does not require counties to use approved vendors to print ballots, but it does require counties to use approved vendors for voting machines. ES&S and KNOW are the only two approved providers, according to Jefferson County Probate Judge Jim Naftel.

Judge Naftel met with ES&S officials after the vote in March to discuss how the problem occurred. and what could be done to prevent this from happening again.

Judge Naftel said the company attributed the problem to “human error.” Additional data checks have been implemented and the Jefferson County Election Commission now verifies the accuracy of each ballot box before sending it to individual precincts. This is done by verifying that the label in each box is consistent with the ballot style requested for the precinct, according to Judge Naftel.

The polls are not opened until Election Day, but Judge Naftel explained that ES&S provides the county with a sample ballot that matches what is in the sealed ballot boxes to be analyzed before the election.

In St. Clair County, election officials said they contacted ES&S as soon as the ballot errors were discovered, but had to wait until 1 p.m. for the correct ballots to be delivered to the affected precincts . Those precincts will be open until 9:00 pm to give voters more time to cast their ballot.

An ES&S spokesperson issued the following statement:

“St. Clair County, AL, reported to ES&S that the back of ballots for two particular ballot styles did not display the local Amendment One and state Amendment One text. Approximately 28,000 ballots were affected by this printing error. To immediately fix the issue, additional ballots were delivered to the county so voters could continue voting using the ADA ExpressVote units. ES&S also immediately began printing replacement ballots to deliver to the county. ES&S takes responsibility for this unfortunate error and is working to determine the root cause..”

Secretary of State Wes Allen also issued a statement on the issue:

“My office is aware of the issue in St. Clair County. However, all ballots are reviewed, inspected and approved locally by the county probate judge’s office and then the ballots are printed by the county’s selected vendor. That process is not something over which the Secretary of State’s Office has jurisdiction or authority.“

Still, WBRC asked Allen’s office if it plans to reach out to ES&S considering these two admitted errors that have disrupted voting in Alabama. His office has not yet responded.

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