Some Lake County voters sent wrong vote-by-mail ballot

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Dozens of voters said they got the wrong vote-by-mail ballot in the mail.

Even though elections officials said the problem is fixed, the man who caught the error said he’s still worried.

The Lake County Supervisor of Elections said 78 ballots were affected.

Bill Stomp was confused and upset when he discovered a problem with the vote-by-mail ballot.

It was sent to his Tavares home in the Royal Harbor community earlier this week.

“The ballot we received was for a completely different town,” said Stomp.

The ballot was meant for people in Sorrento.

Instead of congressional District 11 candidates, his ballot listed those running in District 6, and the Tavares city Council candidates were missing from the back of the ballot.

Stomp said it’s a big deal because those races are usually close.

“The spread between the winner and loser is often times a small number, like 20 or 30 votes,” he said.

The Lake County Supervisor of Elections said the error was discovered Tuesday.

“We are very sorry it happened,” said Emogene Stegall. “It’s human error. People in Royal Harbor should have received ballot style GO-99 and some of them received GO-100.”

Officials sent the correct ballots and said people should have them by Wednesday.

Stegall said the incorrect ballots won’t be counted and will be thrown out.

Cox Media Group