Oops. Turns out her ballot was at her Virginia mansion.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln suffered what might be one of the all-time greatest campaign staff fails this morning. According to her campaign staff, Lincoln was initially turned away when she tried to vote at her home her polling place this morning after elections officials discovered she had already requested an absentee ballot be sent to her Virginia home. Poll workers told Lincoln their records showed she had already voted.
"She just wanted to be prepared," campaign spokesperson Katie Laning Niebaum told me a few minutes ago. "She has requested absentee ballots on many past occasions."
Lincoln didn't fill out the absentee ballot this time, her staff no doubt eager for the classic casting-the-ballot photo op this morning. But, thanks to this mix-up, she's stuck with the less appealing "filling out the provisional ballot so elections officials can determine if her vote is legal or not" shot instead.
The picture is hilarious. It's like she's taking the DMV test. Or writing, "I will go home to Virginia and fetch my absentee ballot" 200 times.