ADEL, Iowa (AP) — Iowa election officials say nearly 6,000 Dallas County absentee ballots went uncounted from the Nov. 8 election because of mistakes by local election officials. A letter from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office says a total of 5,842 ballots went uncounted, but the office acknowledges the missed votes did not change the outcome of any election on the ballot in the central Iowa county. The office says local officials tallied the votes, but failed to upload those tallies to software that compiles vote reports.

The omission of the ballots wasn’t discovered until Feb. 1. In the letter to Dallas County officials, Deputy Secretary of State Carol Olson said while the omissions were due to mistakes, “it is chilling to contemplate the possibility that winners could easily have been affected.”