A Forest Park woman who voted in the General Election this morning said she received the wrong ballot, filled it out, turned it in and, only then, realized there were certain races she expected to vote on that were not listed on her ballot. At that point her vote was cast and could not be changed.
Cathy Walz, 50, voted electronically around 9:30 a.m. at Betsy Ross Elementary School, which is located in Proviso Township’s 76th precinct.
Just after she submitted the ballot, she realized that the form had listed Rep. Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois’ 4th congregational district, even though she resides in the 3rd congressional district represented by Daniel Lipinski.
“I made my choices,” Walz said. “It wasn’t until later when I realized that I hadn’t seen names that I expected to see.”
Walz felt “disappointed” that she was not able to cast the vote the way she wanted and concerned that the problem could be more widespread.
However, Courtney Greve, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Clerk’s Office, said they looked into the case and the mistake has been attributed to a judge’s error. The judge likely entered the wrong digit in the woman’s activation code, Greve said.
“There’s some degree of error that happens in every election because there are 10,000 employees working on one day,” she said. “It’s unfortunate for that voter, but I think overall our judges do a good job.”
Though Walz said her husband also received the wrong ballot, different from the one issued to her, Greve said they have not noticed any cause for concern.
“If we have reason to believe otherwise, we’ll look into it,” Greve said. “But right now we are saying it is judge error.”
Even so, Walz seemed frustrated that any mistake happened during the election.
“It still takes my vote away,” she said.
