Indiana Democratic Party voters who completed and returned their absentee ballot are no longer at risk of an invalid vote.

The party mailed out absentee applications that were missing instructions. According to state law, instructions are required to be on the ballot.

Many Indiana County Clerks decided votes on those ballots would be considered invalid.
Brian Mangus, Co-Director of the Tippecanoe Board of Elections said Tippecanoe voters who submitted these ballots will not be affected.

“Here in Tippecanoe County in the last two days, we received 180 of those ballots. We had not rejected any of them. It wasn’t the voters fault that those instructions were omitted,” said Mangus.

Mangus said the Indiana Election Division Co-Directors Angela Nussmeyer and Bradley King passed an ordinance, which straightened out the situation.

“They resolved the issue with an order saying that absentee ballot application should be considered valid and those applications that had been rejected, those voters should receive a new application so that they would be able to apply again for an absentee ballot.”

While Mangus is unaware exactly how these ballots were misprinted, he says it definitely wasn’t an intentional or malice act on anyone’s part.

Voters can check their voting status online at indianavoters.in.gov. The last day to register to vote is October 9.