SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray confirmed to WAND News at least two voters were given incorrect ballots for the 2024 General Election.

Gray told WAND on Thursday one person reported an incorrect ballot but election officials refuted that claim. Another voter spotted the incorrect ballot before voting and a proper ballot was issued. The second incorrect ballot has already been cast, but voting rules don't permit election officials to take the ballot back.

Springfield Polling Place, voting, election, ballot

FILE - Voters cast their election ballots inside a polling place Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

The incorrect ballot was issued on the first day of early voting. When Gray became aware of the problem, he instituted a double check system, where at least two staff members had to check each ballot. 

"That is a 0.003 incident rate," said Gray. "We certainly don't want an incident at all, but elections are processed by people. We train them to the best that we can. We have redundancies in place to ensure that we're issuing the the correct ballot style. We have 285 of them. Unfortunately, in this case, we had one incorrect ballot style that was issued." 

Sangamon County Democratic Party Chair William Houlihan said at least a dozen people had reported incorrect ballots to the party office.

"Initially most of them received the wrong ballot, and then it was corrected at the county clerk's office," said Houlihan. "And then when it was corrected, they voted for the right candidate for the county board. And these county board races are very competitive, they're going to be decided by a handful of votes."

Houlihan said they've been in contact with the clerk's office, who informed them of the double check system. 

Gray was not aware of additional ballot issues beyond the two he confirmed to WAND News.

Democratic officials in a statement on Wednesday said incorrect ballots were being reported in County Board Districts 12, 24, and 25. 

Gray, a Republican, said elections are run by humans and mistakes will happen. Gray encourages all voters to check their ballot before voting to ensure it's correct. If not, it should be reported to election officials immediately. 

Houlihan said the party's attorney is looking into the issue.

“The reports that voters have received incorrect ballots is both unacceptable and deeply troubling," Houlihan said in a statement Wednesday night. "Every voter, no matter his or her political affiliation, should be able to expect that his or her election authority will provide them with the correct ballot."

According to the Sangamon County Clerk's website, voters can verify their ballot in a number of ways. Voters should verify the precinct information printed in the top right corner of their ballot. The precinct number should match with a voter's registration information. Sangamon County voters can verify their precinct at this website.

For voters in other Illinois counties you can verify information here through the non-partisan Vote 411 or through the state's election website.

This is a developing story.

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