Bismarck Voters Receive Wrong Ballots at Liberty Elementary School

“More so, I just want to make sure voters feel like they were treated fairly,” Republican Sen. Michelle Axtman told KFYR. “Of course we worked really hard this election season, and we want everyone who is able to vote for us to be able to vote for us.”

Minutes after voting began Tuesday morning at Liberty Elementary School on Bismarck’s north side, a few voters received an incorrect ballot, according to the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office, KFYR reported. The school serves as a polling location for both District 7 and District 8, and the error was traced to “reading receipts,” the Secretary of State’s office said.

This matters on Election Day in District 7 because Axtman is on the ballot there for State Senate, and Burleigh County Auditor Mark Splonskowski confirmed in an email that Axtman is on every District 7 ballot. Any voter handed the wrong ballot risked casting a vote in the wrong set of races unless they caught the mistake themselves.

A “few voters” got the wrong ballot at a two-district polling place

Liberty Elementary sits on the north side of Bismarck and doubles as a polling place for two legislative districts, District 7 and District 8. That setup means election judges at a single table must sort voters into different ballot styles, and the Secretary of State’s office told Your News Leader the mix-up happened in the “reading receipts” process — the step where a voter’s district is confirmed and the matching ballot is printed.

Bismarck Voters Receive Wrong Ballots at Liberty Elementary School — Photo: bismarcktribune.com

The office said only “a few voters” were mistakenly provided the wrong ballot. Voters who recognized the error before casting their ballots were able to receive and vote on the correct ballot, KFYR reported. The safeguard, in other words, depended on the voter noticing the mistake in time.

County auditor fixed the process by 9:45 a.m

The county was able to address the issue by 9:45 a.m. to ensure proper ballots were being provided by all judges, according to KFYR. Splonskowski said he went to the polling place personally after reports came in.

“This morning we received reports that a judge at the Liberty Elementary School polling location was making mistakes. I went there personally, addressed the issue and made sure that the judge corrected his process and that the issue was remedied. There have been no reported issues since then.” County Auditor Mark Splonskowski

— Mark Splonskowski, Burleigh County auditor, in an email to Your News Leader, as reported by KFYR

What it means for the District 7 Senate race

Axtman, the Republican incumbent on the ballot in District 7 for State Senate, said the episode frustrated her mainly because of fairness to voters. Her concern is practical: a voter who does not realize they were handed the wrong ballot could end up voting in races they are not eligible for, or missing the State Senate contest entirely.

Splonskowski’s email addressed that directly, stating that Axtman is on every District 7 ballot. With the reading-receipts error corrected at the polling place and no reported issues afterward, the county’s position is that the ballots being handed out after 9:45 a.m. were correct.

No further issues reported as voting continued

By mid-morning the problem was contained. The Secretary of State’s office attributed the error to the reading-receipts step rather than to the ballots themselves, and the county auditor said the judge’s process was corrected on site. KFYR continues to work on the story and will provide updates as they are received.

For voters in Districts 7 and 8 who had not yet cast a ballot, the practical takeaway is simple: check that the ballot matches your district before submitting it, and ask a poll worker if anything looks off.