37 votes to be invalidated after ballot distribution error in Tokushima

The Yomiuri Shimbun

19:35 JST, July 10, 2022

Ballots for the proportional representation election were mistakenly distributed to 37 voters at a polling station in Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, when they should have received ballots for the single-seat Tokushima-Kochi electoral district, it has been learned.

Those 37 votes will be invalidated.

The Tokushima prefectural election administration commission announced the mistake on Sunday. According to the commission, a staff member at the polling station put the ballots for the electoral district and the ballots for the proportional district in the wrong envelopes during preparations.

The error was unnoticed when the ballots were put in the automatic distribution machine on Sunday. It came to light at around 7:55 a.m. when a voter who had come to cast his ballot pointed it out.

A similar mistake was also made with a voter at a polling station in Miyoshi in the same prefecture.