More than 300 absentee ballots in Butler County have been flagged for review by the board of elections and must be corrected by the voters before they can be counted, elections officials said Wednesday.

Ballots can be flagged for a number of reasons, including not providing proper identification, signature discrepancies or including the ID envelope with their ballot, said Jocelyn Bucaro, deputy director of the Butler County Board of Elections. As of Wednesday, 21,685 absentee ballots (non-military/overseas) had been mailed to the board of elections and 309 of them had been challenged.

Of those challenged, 27 are Democratic ballots, 65 are Republican ballots and 217 are unaffiliated. Ballots are labeled “unaffiliated,” if the voter did not cast a ballot during the primary election, Bucaro said.

“It’s much less than in 2008,” Bucaro said, noting ballot challenges are common in elections.

The board of elections has sent notification letters to voters with flagged ballots, along with an absentee ballot identification envelope supplement form that can be completed and returned to its offices on Princeton Road in Hamilton by mail or in-person. When all the information is corrected and verified, the ballot is eligible to be counted, Bucaro said.

To date, 117 corrected forms have been received by the board of elections, she said.

While things have been running smoothly so far for the board of elections, Bucaro said a “glitch” on the board of elections website that categorized some voters’ absentee ballots as “rejected” did alarm some people. She said a feature attached to the voter search was somehow capturing incorrect information when voters looked up their registration and information about absentee ballots.

“We don’t even use the word ‘rejected,’ ” Bucaro said. “We have removed it.”

Cathy Sands of Middletown was one of those people concerned about the glitch. She went on the board of elections website to confirm her registration status and to check on the status of her husband’s and mother’s absentee ballots. When she did, the website said her husband’s ballot had been rejected and her mother’s was being challenged.

“I thought, ‘What is going on here?’ ” Sands said. “Two people in one family (with ballot problems).”

After making several calls to the board of elections, Sands learned about the computer glitch, but was troubled by the lack of notification from elections officials.

“We had not received a call, or a letter, or anything,” Sands said, noting the board told her she would get a letter by week’s end. “I think everyone needs to know about it and call about their absentee votes. They might think their vote is fine and it isn’t.”

In the 2008 presidential election, a total of 28,415 absentee ballots were returned by mail and 1,892 of them were challenged — 451 Democratic ballots, 493 Republican ballots and 960 unaffiliated ballots, according to county records.

Bucaro said much of the decline in the number of challenged ballots is because of a state policy change. In 2008, absentee ballots had to be received in the sealed identification envelope and many voters did not follow that rule, resulting in a challenge.

“The envelopes are a tight squeeze, depending on the size of the ballots,” Bucaro said. “Some voters might have had trouble fitting it in.”

Secretary of State Jon Husted changed the procedure, mandating if a ballot and ID envelope are received separately and are properly filled out, a Republican and a Democratic staff member can place the ballot in the envelope and seal it, she said.

The deadline to return absentee ballots or corrected forms to the board of election is Nov. 16.