The word of all the people may not have been heard on Election Day 2014, after it was discovered that 176 ballots may not have been counted after being cast in an early voting machine.

Mineral County had already been flagged for a discrepancy by the Nevada Secretary of State and the Nevada Supreme Court for being off four votes in the November general election count.

Three local races could be affected where the margin of voters was close.

The closest race was that of Mineral County Assessor between incumbent Dorothy Fowler (680 votes) and Kevin Chisum (666 votes); and there was an 88 vote diffrerence in the clerk/treasurer race between current residing Clerk/Treasurer Lorraine Haight (735 votes) and Chris Nepper (647 votes). The most talked about and debated race, that of Mineral County Sheriff had only 75 votes between current sitting Sheriff Randall “Randy” Adams (727) and Stewart Handte, who had been appointed in December of 2013 (652).

At this time, the newly elected Mineral County Clerk/Treasurer Lorraine Haight will not give a comment after being reached late Saturday afternoon and emails from the Mineral County Independent-News to Mineral County District Attorney Sean Rowe have went unanswered.

A source told the Independent-News that the rolls onto which the ballots had been cast were found in a locked bottom drawer of former Mineral County Clerk/Treasurer Cherrie George.

Upon finding the ballots, Rowe was called to the office, according to the source and the ballots secured in the vault within the Clerk/Treasurer office.

The rolls, labeled one of two and two of two, were not located within the vault, but in the bottom drawer of the desk located in the office of Lorraine Haight according to the source. Along with the cartridges used in the voting machine process.

It is unclear right now what will be done about counting the missing ballots, or if it is certain they have not been counted.

As developments transpire, the Independent-News will update our readers.