SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A day after the primary election, the Minnehaha county auditor summoned members of the election resolution board due to several people receiving the wrong ballots.

5 of the 8 members of the election resolution board showed up to correct the ballot mix-up. 

The board, made up of representatives of each political party, are the same people who observed the counting of the ballots last night.

Minnehaha County Auditor Ben Kyte obtained a court order from a judge to unseal the ballots which were retrieved from the vault. 

The State’s Attorney’s office oversaw the proceedings from a legal standpoint.

“The court order required that there be witnesses present when the ballot boxes are opened, the fact that you’re here makes it ideal,” Daniel Haggar with the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s office said.

Members of the auditor’s staff then located the ballots in question and gave them to the resolution board.

Voters from districts 9 and 11 both vote at the MariCar Center.

A member of the resolution board said independent voters were mistakenly given democratic ballots.

“And so there will be a small change there, nothing that’s going to affect the outcome of any election,” Haggar said.

The resolution board’s job is to interpret the intent of the 21 voters. In this case, they created duplicate ballots in the correct primary.

“The good news is that we have this resolution board, the tabulating system did what it is supposed to do, it caught that there would have been an error with the voting if we had let it count what had happened, and so the resolution board, their job is to make sure that the counting is happening that it’s accurate and they did just that,” Haggar said.

Resolution board member Karon Gubbrud says the whole process should give people faith in our election process.

“It’s a vivid reminder of how careful we are with our elections and how honest our elections are and how very thorough and professional our election personnel are,” Karon Gubbrud, Resolution Board member said.

The final tabulations are sent on to the secretary of state’s office and are considered official. 

Kyte says the system caught the error right away because there are only 8 registered democrats in the precinct where the 21 independent voters were given the wrong ballots.