Triple oops: Okaloosa County elections office addresses three missteps on Election Day
CRESTVIEW — The Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Office reported and addressed multiple voting issues early Tuesday, ensuring all ballots would be properly counted.
According to Paul Lux, Okaloosa County's supervisor of elections, some precinct ballots were mistakenly printed with 'VBM' in the official use box, a designation typically used for vote-by-mail ballots. This mark prevents mail ballots from being tabulated in precinct machines.
As a result, affected voters placed their ballots in a secure auxiliary bin. These ballots will be returned to election headquarters at the close of polls and reviewed by their respective city canvassing boards. Officials said the issue affected fewer than 0.5% of eligible voters.
In a separate incident, a Fort Walton Beach precinct encountered a configuration error that prompted some voters to go to Niceville City Hall instead of their correct voting location. Poll workers resolved the issue by providing preprinted emergency ballots, which were also placed in the auxiliary bin. The Fort Walton Beach canvassing board will review and count these ballots.
Additionally, election officials discovered that a cached version of the 2025 Municipal Results page displayed test data from the logic and accuracy test on Monday night.
In an email conversation with the Northwest Florida Daily News, Lux explained that there is a testing procedure to upload a test results file, similar to a file uploaded as election results roll in, to ensure everything is working correctly and then "zero" those results out of the system.
Staff cleared the test results Tuesday morning and confirmed they would not affect election night reporting. Officials are working with the office's vendors to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Looking up: The lunar eclipse is this week. Will you be able to see it in Fort Walton Beach?
All issues were corrected early Tuesday, according to election officials.
'Situations such as these are regrettable but are not up to the standard Okaloosa voters have come to expect from our elections,' Lux said in a news release. 'I take full responsibility for this. We immediately took the necessary steps to correct these situations, and we are using this opportunity to improve our election processes. I want to assure voters who voted early this morning that their votes will be tabulated before election night activities are concluded.'
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Okaloosa Co. elections office addresses three issues on Election Day
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