Wheeling Township voters get mailed South suburban ballots

Wheeling Township Republican Precinct Captain Art Gollberg thought he would be busy on Election Day trying to get last minute-votes, so he thought he'd try to cast his own ballot ahead of time.

But when he, his wife and son received their absentee ballots in the mail, they were all surprised when they saw races down the ballot that didn't look familiar.

Though they live in Wheeling Township Precinct 28, which includes the Creekside Condos in Mount Prospect, their ballots were marked Thornton Township, more than 50 miles away in the South suburbs.

Instead of being able to vote in the hotly-contested 10th congressional district race between Bob Dold and Brad Schneider, Gollberg and his family were presented with the uneventful race in the 2nd district between Robin Kelly and John Morrow. There were similar races out of their area for other offices.

Their ballots did include contests for president, U.S. Senate and state comptroller.

"Down the ballot, it's going to deny the supporters of any candidate from making the right choice," said Gollberg, 77, a former commissioner on the Prospect Heights and Arlington Heights park boards.

Officials from the Cook County Clerk's Office, which is responsible for coordinating elections in suburban Cook County, on Friday said a staffer mailed ballots marked "95-11" when they should've sent "96-11."

Officials initially thought the error might have affected up to 42 voters, but so far they've only talked with 15 people who say they got the wrong ballots -- all in Wheeling Township, according to spokesman Nick Shields.

Those who have the wrong ballots should send them back to the clerk's office, and new ones will be mailed, Shields said.

Gollberg and his family requested their ballots about six weeks ago, and got them in the mail last Saturday. They didn't look at the ballots closely until Monday, when they got a call from the clerk's office that something might be wrong.

"What's problematic is people could've voted and sent them in," Gollberg said.