News 12 at 6 o'clock / Monday, Aug. 20, 2012

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The Richmond County Board of Elections is working to resolve some last-minute voter problems before the runoff election.

Lindsey Brooks cast her ballot a few days ago during early voting but not without a slight mishap.

"I checked the Republican ballot and I ended up getting a Democratic one," Brooks said.

Thankfully, she caught the error and the poll worker fixed the problem.

"We did have a couple people who inadvertently received the wrong ballot and we just canceled their ballot and gave them the one that they wanted," said Lynn Bailey with the Richmond County Board of Elections.

Bailey says that will not be a problem for voters during the runoff.

Advance voting is more of a manual process, so human error is more likely to occur. Poll workers will rely on a computer to do the work during the actual runoff. It will automatically select the party voters originally choose during the primary.

However, the computer program has created at least one problem that won't be resolved by tomorrow. It involves locations where multiple precincts go to vote.

"Due to the way the database was formulated, instead of for reporting purposes, splitting those votes out and directing them to their proper precinct, it lumped them in together," Bailey said.

The good news the problem will not affect the outcome of the runoff, only the way the numbers are reported. Bailey says they working to fix the problem before the November election.

The most likely hurdle for voters during the runoff is simply choosing a party.

"I think its a natural inclination to want to participate across the board, especially when you have elections like we've had this particular primary when you have interesting races on both parties' ballot," Bailey said.

If you do run into any problems at the polls, make sure to speak up before validating your vote. It's too late to make any changes once you push submit.

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