The Floyd County Election Board held an emergency meeting Friday after discovering hundreds of incomplete ballots issued to voters. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)A Floyd County Democratic candidate says she’s exploring legal options to contest the results of her close race, after it was erroneously lef t off the ballot for hundreds of early and mail voters.Unofficial results from the Floyd County Clerk’s Office shows Ellen Morrison Kelley lost by 152 votes to Republican incumbent Al Knable in the county commissioners District 1 race.Knable brought in 13,984 votes, or 50.3%, and Kelley got 13,832, or 49.7%.“This initial mistake by the Floyd County clerks office has put the legitimacy of the commissioner election into question," Kelley said in a news release Wednesday. “People are frustrated with the poor leadership in Floyd County and they have been cheated of their opportunity to make a new choice for the leadership of the commission.”Commissioners’ duties include managing county-owned buildings, land and property, overseeing construction and maintenance of county roads and bridges and receiving county bids and authorizing contracts.County election officials said early last month they had identified 572 impacted voters who should have had that race on their ballots. They were in four precincts: Franklin, Greenville, Georgetown and Lafayette.The error affected people who voted in the first few days of early voting, as well as mail-in ballots. Officials said they had corrected the error shortly after learning of it and were going to contact affected voters by mail. Those voters were to receive a letter explaining the issue and an ABS-5 form, which was needed to cancel their original ballot and get a chance to vote a new one.But it’s not clear how many people cast replacement ballots. LPM News reached out to the Floyd County Election Board Thursday to confirm how many people may have recast their ballots or received new ones, and did not hear back by publication.Kelley said in the release she was one of the first people to bring attention to the error and that she's talking with election law experts and weighing her options, which could include pursuing a recount or special election.“Floyd County Clerk Danita Burks should find a way to make sure all of those 572 people can use their right to vote,” Kelley said.In a text message Thursday, she said she had been receiving supportive messages and that “people are really mad about this attempt to disenfranchise voters.”Kelley said she has talked with people who were unable to go through the process to cast their vote a second time.When reached by phone Thursday, Knable acknowledged it was a close race.“I think if I were in her shoes, I would explore, investigate the options available to me, and carefully consider the pros and cons,” Knable said. “I support her looking into that, and hopefully, she can get to a place where she has faith in the integrity of the process.”Knable said he doesn’t think the inaccurate ballots affected the final outcome of the race, and said he has “confidence in the integrity of the outcome of the race” after talking with election board members about the process.The narrow commissioners race tallies come as other Democrats in Floyd County had some wins. Marcey Wisman beat Republican Steve Burks in the county clerk race and Democrat Sharon S. Young unseated Republican incumbent Diana Marie Topping for county auditor.Knable said he has historically done well in the four areas where ballots were affected.“So my gut tells me that if there was a discrepancy, it probably hurt me just as much, if not more, than my opponent,” he said. “But I don't think there's any way to really ever be for sure on that.”And even with Democratic wins, he said the results from those precincts show voters primarily voted for Republicans.Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County. ...read more read less