Greenwich Election Audit Turns Up Uncounted Votes

GREENWICH, CT — Board of Estimate and Taxation candidates Andy Duus and Nancy Weissler may have each lost one vote in last month's Greenwich Republican primary because a voter checked ovals on the ballot sheet instead of filling them in, according to the town's Republican Registrar of Voters Fred DeCaro III.

Duus ended up collecting enough votes in the primary to make it on the ballot next month, while Weissler, an incumbent, did not, but the one vote she may have lost would not have changed the outcome.

The discovery was made on Wednesday when the Registrars completed a state-mandated audit of ballots from one voting District. In the audit, it was determined that one ballot may not have been properly counted because the voter failed to fill in the ovals, instead, the voter made checkmarks on the ballot.

"If you spend the time to come to the polling place and to carefully select candidates, please take the
extra 20 seconds necessary to completely fill-in the oval to make certain your vote is properly counted,"
said DeCaro in a statement.

In the above ballot, which was provided by the Registrars’ Office, the voter made checkmarks which covered less than half of the oval, and did not cover the center of the oval.

"While it’s clear to the human eye what the voter intended, the computer could interpret the check as a stray mark," added DeCaro. "We think the tabulator may not have counted a vote for Mr. Duus and a vote for Mrs. Weissler.”

According to Michael Aurelia, Greenwich Democratic Registrar of Voters, ballots are only screened by humans in the event of a close vote recount, prompting the Aurelia and DeCaro to voters to always completely fill in the oval for the candidates of your choice.

But whether a close vote or not, "we want to make sure that every vote is counted as intended. Please help us do that by reading the instructions on the ballot and completely filling out the ovals.”

Photo: Incorrect ballot from the September 2017 Republican primary in Greenwich. Photo credit: Greenwich Registrar of Voters Office