HARDIN CO.—Reports of ballot issues are coming in from Hardin County, and they are monumental…so much so that if widespread, they could cause the election to have to be re-done.
Here’s what we were handed last month when we went to get a specimen ballot:
Specimen/publication ballot Hardin County, page 1
Notice that the municipalities of Rosiclare, Elizabethtown and Cave In Rock, which all have mayoral races as well as selections for commissioner in the city of Rosiclare, are all on one ballot. That’s because it’s a “publication” (specimen) ballot…it’s the one the county clerk compiles so that it’s published—by law—in a newspaper of general circulation (although Hardin doesn’t have any to publish in, from what we’re told; and since we don’t accept legal ads, they’re kinda screwed on that state mandate and have to go to an adjacent county, thus the reason why Harrisburg still has a newspaper.)
Ordinarily, there will be district-specific ballots made. There’s be a ballot for Rosiclare. A ballot for E-town. A ballot for Cave. And then a ballot for everyone not in the incorporated areas (municipalities). That way, people sitting outside the city limits of E-town don’t have an opportunity to vote for Heck Rose for mayor, since they’re not paying those taxes.
Except today, some people are reporting that they DID have a chance to vote for the incorporated areas…mayors and city commissioners…if they lived outside the city limits.
We’re receiving report after report of ballot irregularities in Hardin as of about 6 p.m. The first source advised that she took one look at her ballot, said “this isn’t the right one for me, I’m outside city limits” and was told that was the only ballot they had. Not wanting to spoil the ballot, she went ahead and voted only for those offices that apply to her area.
But not everybody will be so honest, if indeed this is the case county-wide. Subsequent reports have indicated much the same thing, so it’s not a bizarre isolated incident.
We’re in touch with some officials who said they’ll be looking into it in the morning. In the meantime we’re working on getting the excruciatingly slow results for this election, which have surprisingly NOT been as fast in any of our counties of coverage as we anticipated they’d be. Maybe more people got out to vote than anticipated, which is a good thing…unless there’s a ballot screwup in Hardin, which might mean a complete re-do.
Right now we’re hearing that the four selected for the school board in Hardin are Jerry D. Fricker, Ricky D. Williams, Natalie J. Vaughn and, surprisingly, former HCS principal Jimmy Stunson. Apparently he spent more time campaigning than he did sitting on the barstool at the local pub, which is what he was doing as of about a year ago when he resigned as principal at the end of the school year.
We’ve also just learned that Bertis Cook retained his seat as village president in E-town, beating former mayor Heck Rose. Also, the Public Sales Tax has passed in Hardin.
Mayor Marty Kaylor kept his office in Cave-in-Rock against contender Perry Foster, and Roy W. Tolbert prevailed as mayor of Rosiclare versus James “Rusty” Warren.
More as we get it, keep checking back.