The Wayne County Board of Elections failed to place the names of two Green Party candidates on thousands of absentee ballots. The candidates are Dianne Feeley for the 5th district and Louis Novak for 6th district, who are running for county commissioners. 

In accordance to state law the Green Party submitted the names of five candidates to appear on the Nov. 2 ballot. A supervisor for the board says corrected ballots will be reprinted and voters will get a chance to submit a revised copy.  Green Party candidate for 7th District State Representative, Derek Grigsby says he’s concerned about how the office will ensure that absentee voters have enough time to mark a ballot. “We are all upset because these candidates didn’t get the opportunity to express their views,” he said.

There are tens of thousands of absentee voters in the districts and the election is only days away.  Feeley and Novak lost their chance to participate in various public forums all because their names weren’t printed on the ballots.  

A few of the Green Party’s initiatives involve stopping the Sheriff’s office foreclosures, taxing the richest 1 percent who have benefited from the economic crisis and revising jail procedures in counties to help young men find a place for themselves in communities.

One county official is taking the heat for misprinting the absentee ballots. According to Grigsby the Green Party isn’t holding the  individual responsible, and believes the incident could have been prevented if there weren’t so many laid off workers in the county. “We think it was an accident. We’re not blaming one worker. We don’t want this one worker to be taken out of work. They have to blame themselves, they need to have a system in place. People make mistakes,” Grigsby said. He is uncertain of whether the incident will lead to a lawsuit.