County supervisor names left off ballots in Ely and rural southeast Linn County

AP/Lang
11/8/22

Linn County voters southeast of Cedar Rapids, including in Ely, missed the chance to vote for a contested county supervisor seat when county election officials inadvertently left the race off their ballots.

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said the error in Tuesday’s election was made when ballots were sent to printers more than a month ago. He called it a failure of his office and took responsibility for it.

Miller says the candidates Democrat Kirsten Running-Marquardt and Republican Mark Banowetz may contest the election, sending it to a panel of people who will decide whether a new election is ordered.

Linn County has three supervisor districts and the ballot error was in an area with 2,200 registered voters.

The affected ballots were in Putnam Township, which includes the areas between Cedar Rapids and Mt. Vernon south of the Cedar River.