A Republican-filed candidate for the Mars Area School District board of directors may appear on Democratic voters' primary ballots.

Lee Ann Riner, who filed only as a Republican and not as both parties, appears on the Democratic sample ballots, distributed by the county, in six voting precincts in Mars Area. She said she was told by a friend she had also appeared on a Democratic mail-in ballot, as well.

On the sample ballots for Adams Township 1, 2 and 3; Middlesex Township North and South; and Valencia Borough, Riner's name appears on both Republican and Democratic ballots alongside the other six candidates, all of whom cross-filed.

County commissioners chairwoman Leslie Osche said the county had reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of State with some potential resolutions — such as putting a sticker or label over Riner's name on Democratic ballots — and were awaiting approval of those suggestions. The state has already nixed the idea of reprinting ballots, as the scanners had locked in their calibrations for accuracy.

Other potential solutions Butler County offered, Osche said, include handing out fliers to those voting stating Riner is not running for the Democratic nomination.

For those who may have voted by mail, Osche said the county has asked the state whether those voters could come in person on Tuesday, spoil their mail-in ballots and cast new votes.

“Again, the Department of State has to approve that, so I suppose it's going to be a very fast turnaround come Monday morning,” Osche added.

Democratic votes cast via mail for Riner that are not corrected or spoiled may simply not be counted, she said, but added that would be looked at by a committee after the election. Riner said she doesn't feel the ballot error is fair for the six cross-filed candidates, whose votes may be diluted on the Democratic ballot by the presence of her name.

County Democratic party chairwoman Catherine Lalonde said she hadn't heard about any issue with the ballots until contacted Friday by the Eagle.

“I would like to know how the mistake was made and what process could be changed to avoid that in the future,” Lalonde said. “I should have been informed when the bureau and commissioners realized what happened instead of from the newspaper.”

But the ballot snafu wasn't the first time Riner had seen an issue with her party filing.

“The original list that the Bureau of Elections put out in March (showed) that we all cross-filed, and I did not,” she said.

That prompted Riner to speak with the elections bureau to clear that up, where she was told by a worker the information would be corrected. Yet when Riner's friend said on May 10 her husband's ballot showed Riner's name, it became clear there was some error.

“Tuesday morning (May 11) I went to the department of elections and spoke with their supervisor Aaron Sheasley,” Riner said. “He wasn't sure what route he could go. He didn't know if there would be enough time to re-print the ballots, so he told me he would alert the media and make them aware of the department's mistake.”

While Sheasley told her he would be in touch within 24 hours, she reached out both Wednesday and Thursday, to no avail. Instead, when she emailed again Friday — this time copying Osche — she received a response that day from county solicitor Will White, who “said they're working on it,” according to Riner.

Osche attributed the ballot error to the shorter deadlines imposed by the state legislature.

“There's no good excuse for it,” she said. “It's never good to have an error on a ballot, but it also just highlights some of the things that create challenges when we have such compressed time frames as a result of Act 77.”