By GAYLE WEBER

gweber@dailynews.net

The vote on the $3.5 million bond issue for USD 432 from the Aug. 5 primary election has changed again.

After a second look at provisional ballots counted by Ellis County commissioners Monday, Ellis County Clerk Alberta Klaus disallowed a no vote commissioners counted Monday. The final tally stands at 281-279 in favor of passing the bond.

"We discovered one ballot was issued in error in provisional. They grabbed a 432 ballot instead of just a township ballot," she said. "It would look to me like we couldn't count it."

Before Monday's canvassing, the bond issue looked like it would fail with 277 no votes to 273 yes votes. Klaus reported there were 10 provisional ballots that would be factored into the bond issue; however, 11 votes were counted by commissioners.

Klaus said the extra vote on the bond issue would not count because the voter did not reside in USD 432, but the rest of the ballot would. She will certify the election today.

On election day, at least five people living in USD 432 were given electronic ballots without the bond question on them. They were given paper ballots to vote on the bond issue once they told poll workers about the error.

"I have to believe them when they say they didn't get it," Klaus said. "Once they cast their ballot, how do I know that? They should have said it beforehand. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and let them vote by paper ballot."

A total of 550 votes were cast at the Victoria polling site, with 67 of them in advance. When Klaus put pencil to paper to see if there were any discrepancies because of the problems at the polling site, she came up with one missing vote.

"Instead of it being a major issue, it looks like it's one vote," Klaus said. "We're talking about one voter. Maybe they didn't vote on the question. ... Someone could have walked out with a ballot, we don't know that."

Klaus said there were six ballot options at the Victoria polling site in addition to voters choosing the correct political party, which led to some of the confusion. She said many voters selected their correct township ballot but did not choose the ballot with the school district question on it.

All but two voters who signed the poll book in Victoria reside within USD 432 boundaries.

"If there's some people that got it without the (bond question), there's probably some people (who) got it that weren't supposed to," Commissioner Perry Henman said. "You'll never know that since it's all on computer."

Klaus couldn't confirm or deny Henman's statement.

"There's really no way to know if anybody got the wrong one," Klaus said. "Somebody in Hays could have gotten the wrong one. The (ballots) are just in a different order, or maybe some had a commissioner on there and another didn't. A lot of people, you just don't know."

In another closely contested race, John Schmeidler will be the Republican nominee in the District 3 commission race. Schmeidler had a 259-254 lead over Paul Meis going into Monday's canvassing.

Schmeidler and Meis received three votes each from provisional ballots, so Schmeidler will face Democratic incumbent Vernon Berens in November.