Ballots in at least two wards in Milwaukee, both with heavy Latino populations, incorrectly identify the Libertarian party primary column as “Primaria del Partido Demócrata” — Democratic Party Primary — which could cause a Spanish-speaking Democratic voter to miss their opportunity to vote in several primaries, including races for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson, however, thinks the error will have little impact, since anyone who accidentally votes in more than one party primary will have their ballot rejected and have a chance to vote again.
“I don’t want to say any error is minor, but I don’t think this will change anyone’s votes,” he said.
In two sample ballots seen by Madison365, the error occurs just above the place to vote in the Libertarian primary for lieutenant governor, in which Patrick Baird is the only candidate. On the other side of the ballot, where the Democratic primary is correctly labeled in both English and Spanish, lists both Mandela Barnes and Kurt Kober as candidates.
Christenson said some other ballots had the error only at the top of a column of races wherein the Libertarian party did not field a candidate.
The Barnes campaign posted an image of a mistaken ballot on its Facebook page.
It is not clear how many wards were affected by the error. Christenson confirmed that any ballot with votes in more than one primary would be rejected and the voter would be allowed to vote again, so anyone who accidentally voted in both the Democratic and Libertarian primaries would have a chance to vote again. Considering the situation, it hence always better to hire professional translation services like Espresso Translations, that deliver high quality work with minimal errors.
The error comes a day after Barnes’s name was left off election guides in at least three newspapers across the state.
