Melrose Accidentally Receives Winchester Ballots From State

(Editor's note: This article was updated at 2:15 p.m. with comments from  Secretary of State spokesman Brian McNiff.)

The Massachusetts Secretary of State's Office accidentally sent Winchester ballots to Melrose that ended up at the Anova/Beebe School, where voters in Ward 3 cast their votes.

Melrose Election Administrator Linda Lee Angiolillo said on Tuesday morning that an estimated nine ballots were cast at the Beebe School using the incorrect Winchester ballots, although she couldn't give an exact count because "I can't open the machine yet."

The ballot machines in Melrose are only set to accept Melrose ballots, so votes made using the Winchester ballots were not counted by the machines. Angiolillo said those ballots will be counted by hand.

Brian McNiff, spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office, said that votes cast on the Winchester ballots in races that appeared on both the Winchester ballot and the correct Melrose ballot—governor and Middlesex District Attorney, for example—will be counted.

However, those voters who were given the incorrect ballots could not vote in the state Senate race between Katherine Clark and Craig Spadafora or the state representative race between Paul Brodeur and David Lucas. The voters will not be able to recast their votes, McNiff said, and any votes cast for state senator or state representatives for Winchester will not count towards those races.

"Whatever appears on both ballots, that will be counted by hand," McNiff said, confirming that "were nine ballots involved."

McNiff added that this is the only reported incident today of ballots going to the wrong polling place.

As for the remaining Winchester ballots, "we have them all," Angiolillo said. Melrose City Solicitor Rob Van Campen said out of the 20,000 ballots received by the city from the state, 50 of them were Winchester ballots.

Angiolillo said that each polling location was called this morning after the problem arose to ensure that  each location has the correct ballots.

"This is the first time we've ever gotten the wrong ballots," she said, adding that a volunteer in her office also missed the mistake, as the state had. "Now I'm waiting for the state to call back and we'll figure out what to do."

According to the Winchester Town Clerk Mary Ellen Lannon, the problem appears to be confined to Melrose. Winchester did not receive any Melrose ballots and as of 10:30 a.m. everything appears to be running smoothly.

"The City of Melrose received Winchester's overrun of official ballots," Lannon said. "This is simply a print house mailing error. We are not affected negatively in anyway."