An unknown number of mail-in ballots that had been sent to voters by the Butler County Bureau of Elections has been lost by the U.S. Post Office.

Aaron Sheasely, the director of the elections bureau, announced at Wednesday's county commissioners meeting that he was contacted within the last 24 hours by postal officials at the federal level that an active investigation is ongoing regarding the issue.

Neither Sheasley nor the commissioners could estimate how many ballots were lost or what post office location is responsible.

Sheasley is urging voters who have not received their mail-in ballots to go to their polls on Election Day and vote by provisional ballot.

“Those votes will absolutely be counted,” Sheasley said.

Mail-in voters who already requested a ballot and cannot go to the polls to vote can come to the elections bureau and vote before the election, Sheasley said.

This is an excerpt from a story that appears in Thursday's Butler Eagle.