Why am I measuring 60v at some outlets?
So, I fixed it! The only wire I hadn't disconnected in the panel was the ground wire. As it turns out, the ground wire was broken somewhere in the home run cable. This means that the entire circuit was not grounded! This explains why I had a wandering ghost voltage AND why terminating the ground to the neutral made the problem disappear. I now am reading all the correct voltages. I had to run a ground wire from a switch that was above one of the other outlets. I've done lots of wiring, but I had never encountered a grounding and bonding issue like this. I appreciate all your guys' input. Hopefully, there may be someone out there that can figure out their issue by reading all of this. Cheers!