UPDATED: 10-25-24)

Statement from John Bartlett —

The mistake made on the Jay County ballot is just that, a mistake. Nothing malicious happened, and Mr. Eads is doing what needs to be done to rectify the situation. The Election Office will have extra work to do to properly tabulate the ballots so that everyone casts eligible votes which is how it should be. Thank you to Mr. Eads and the workers in the Jay County Election Office, as well as all the election officials around the state, who strive to make our elections fair and legal.

(10-18-24) Today in a Commercial Review story it has been discovered that the ballot for the upcoming November election had an incorrect item issued.

Jay County Clerk Jon Eads in an email yesterday notified local media of a ballot problem involving the District 33 (Incumbent Republican J.D. Prescott and Democrat John Bartlett) and District 79 (Incumbent Republican Matt Lehman is uncontested) state representative positions.

Commercial Review – Jay Co. ballot issue found

Both state representative districts were on all Jay County ballots. District 79 should have only been available for voting in the Penn, Jackson, Bearcreek and Wabash precincts.

District 33 available only to voters in the Wayne 1, Wayne 2, Wayne 3, Wayne 4, Wayne 7, Madison, Pike, Noble, Jefferson, Redkey, Dunkirk 1, Dunkirk 3, Green and Knox precincts.

The impact of the ballot mistake could provide for an interesting situation in the District 33 race which is being contested.

Bartlett and Prescott

The Commercial Review raised a question of fairness to Eads given that counting those ballots as cast could result in voters ineligible to vote in the District 33 race potentially impacting the outcome.

Eads replied by to the CR about the issue on the ballot—

“Unless a voter on or before October 11th recasts that vote, the vote casted will be counted as is, and no changes made. If ballot is recast the previous ballot will be voided and not counted.… this was confirmed from the Election Division.”

We have reached out to the two District 33 candidates for a statement, will update this post when we receive them.