The Platte County Circuit Court late last week granted the Board of Elections’ petition for a new election in Parkville
The special election for wards one and three is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21. According to the Board of Elections, new ballots are being printed and will arrive by the end of the week, at which point absentee voting can begin. The new election is estimated to cost about $4,500.
The Board of Elections filed a petition on April 8 for the court to authorize a new special election to re-run the elections for these two wards.
The board became aware of possible problems in the Parkville election on Tuesday, April 2 when voters noticed their ballots were incorrect — it was later determined voters were registered in the wrong ward.
At the end of the night Tuesday, incumbent Phil Wassmer and Weston Coble tied for the ward one seat, each receiving 187 votes. Ward three had three candidates, with incumbent Doug Wylie edging out his challengers. In that race, Wylie earned 215 votes, beating Scott Herbig’s 211 votes. Scott Curran received only 22 votes.
By mid-week, the board was investigating the error and notified the City of Parkville, which released a statement supporting the Board of Elections’ decision. The Board of Elections met Friday and voted to send the matter to the courts.
Some voters residing in newer residences on Limestone Court were provided with incorrect ballots. Voters residing in these homes were listed in county records as ward one residents instead of ward three. Before the error was discovered, thirteen voters in ward three cast a ward one ballot. These 13 votes incorrectly affected the results in ward one, and the true intentions of the voters were not registered in ward three.
Because the results of both races were by a margin of less than 13 votes, it was not possible for the board of elections to declare a winner in either ward.