Election and Problems Marriott-Slaterville faces mix-up 16 households handed another district's ballots BY LYNZE WARDLE AND TIM GURRISTER Standard-Examiner staff lwardle@standard.net MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE Some Marriott-Slaterville residents were given the wrong ballot in Tuesday's election and may be asked to vote again. Voters from 16 households in the city's east voting district were provided with ballots for the west district's City Council race, said City Attorney Bill Morris. The winner of the east district's City Council seat has not been determined. Morris said he will ask Second District Court Judge W. Brent West for permission to reissue ballots to affected voters. West issued a temporary restraining order sought by Morris under election law, to formally seal the election results for the time being. "There's no gag order," the judge said. "Anybody can talk about it, it's just the city clerk can't release the final election results until the affected voters can vote again." West said it was his understanding that city officials would need a week to notify the voters who will be re-voting, and that at the Nov. 16 hearing, the voting results from the 16 households would be announced in his courtroom. Candidate Kent Meyerhoffer and incumbent candidate Delbert Hodson learned late Tuesday night they would have to wait for results of the race. "I'm fine with it," Meyerhoffer said. "It was an honest mistake, and as long as they figure it out before Jan. 1, we'll be all right." Hodson said he alerted Morris to the mistake around 8 p.m. Tuesday, after receiving calls from several concerned residents. "I knew there was a problem when people from my district told me election workers wouldn't give them the Marriott-Slaterville result delayed Standard-Examiner staff MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE Due to balloting concerns, officials here were unprepared to declare a winner in the city's east district council race Tuesday night. City Administrator Bill Morris said some voters in the east district may have received the wrong ballot and may have erroneously voted in the west district. "We've got to go through and determine who and how many and if it even made a difference," Morris said. He explained that officials were not prepared to release any vote totals for that race at that time. The race was between incumbent Delbert Hodson and Kent Meyerhoffer. Weber County City Council 2 seats Delbert Hodson (I), N/A Kent Meyerhoffer, N/A *Kim Slater (l,U), 146 Marriott-Slaterville Mayor Gerald Bischoff, 52 *Keith Butler (I), 266 November 9, 2005 ballot that I was on," Hodson said. The mix-up did not affect Marriott-Slaterville's mayoral race, ballot propositions or the other city council race, where candidate Kim Slater was running unopposed. Morris said the mistake occurred because one of the three election judges was not aware of recent district boundary changes. Maps showing the new boundaries had been packed in boxes, and could not be retrieved before the election, he said. Both Meyerhoffer and Hodson said they won't use the delay to do more campaigning. November 10, 2005