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Ballots missing juvenile center Jackson County is sending out 21,000 revisions By Dani Dodge About 21,000 Jackson County voters will be missing something when they receive their ballots in the mail today and Monday � the chance to vote on a countywide juvenile justice bond measure. Those who receive incomplete ballots though, will get supplemental ballots in the next few days. That supplement will include only the $16.5 million bond. "I�m sick. Just sick," said County Clerk Kathy Beckett. "I�m so sick to my stomach." Bob Grindstaff, director of the county�s community justice department, said he was unsure what impact the gaffe may have on the election outcome. "Certainly anything that adds confusion makes it that much harder to get the vote in," he said. "That�s really unfortunate." The Nov. 7 vote is the third time the county has tried to move and modernize the Jackson County juvenile center. The ballot snafu was discovered at about 4 p.m. Friday when a couple went to the elections department to fill out absentee ballots. "They said �Where�s the county measure?� " Beckett said. "Sure enough, it was missing." Basically, she said, something went wrong with the ballot formatting. Ballots on which the countywide juvenile measure was supposed to the only local measure went out without any local measures. That�s about one-fifth of all ballots, and the voters receiving the blighted ballots are scattered throughout the county. Ballots that have city, school or special district measures do have the juvenile measure included. The mistake was missed during proofreading, said Beckett. "I don�t have any idea why it happened," she said. She could not estimate the cost of the mistake, but said that the county elections employees worked quickly to rectify the problem. The supplemental ballot for the juvenile center bond is a sheet of paper that will have to be hand-tallied on election night � and days afterwards. The hand-tallying of thousands of ballots is sure to slow tabulation of results � something that could be criticalto the bond measure if statewide Measure 93 passes. Should Measure 93 pass, its limits on new taxes and fees could leave the county with only a short window of time to sell bonds. "It could be a problem," sighed Grindstaff. Beckett said supplemental ballots should be out to voters by Tuesday. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.