Thousands of SLO County voters receive 2 ballots weeks before Election Day
Update 4:40 p.m.
San Luis Obispo County elections official Tommy Gong explained Friday how the system used to count ballots will prevent voters who received two ballots from voting twice.
Each vote-by-mail ballot envelope is issued with a unique voter ID barcode.
All of the 2,600 people who received two ballots, received duplicate ballots that each had the same barcode. If someone attempts to vote twice, which is illegal, “it would be intercepted,” Gong said.
The machine will alert the election office workers and physically reject the ballot, placing it in a separate pile, Gong told The Tribune.
“We are instructing voters to only vote one ballot and destroy the other,” Gong said.
The vendor responsible for the error is ProVote Solutions, which says it has been certified by the state for six years. This is the first election that the county has contracted with the company, and the contract goes through the November election, according to Gong.
The double printing and mailing was not specific to any supervisor district or political party, Gong said.
Rather, the voters received two ballots live across the county, he said.
“It’s very unfortunate that they sent this duplicate. I see promise with this vendor, regardless of the circumstances,” Gong said.
Original story:
Thousands of voters in San Luis Obispo County received duplicate vote-by-mail ballots for the March 3 primary election, the county’s top election official announced Friday morning.
“Upon review, it was discovered that the county’s ballot printer and mailhouse vendor had inadvertently processed a supplemental VBM mailing twice, resulting in 2,666 voters receiving a second, identical VBM ballot,” San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder Tommy Gong said in a press release.
Gong said that the current voting system will allow the county elections department to flag any duplicate ballot, “ensuring that only one ballot is counted per voter.”
“While it is unfortunate that some duplicate VBM ballots were sent to voters, we were able to quickly discover the discrepancy and develop a plan to notify affected voters of the situation and how to rectify it,” Gong said. “We regret any confusion and inconvenience this has caused.”
More than 140,000 local voters are registered to vote by mail this election, Gong said.
Those who received an extra ballot will be sent postcard notifications by the vendor, according to Gong.
Carol Broadhurst of Cambria was among the voters who received two vote-by-mail ballots. She and her husband, Michael Broadhurst, are area farmers who co-managed Cambria’s Friday farmers market for years.
The Broadhursts will be out of town on Election Day, Carol Broadhurst said Friday, so they requested one-time vote-by-mail ballots for the March 3 primary.
“I’m a registered Republican, and I got two ballots,” she said, “My husband is a registered Democrat, and he hasn’t gotten a ballot yet. So, were all the people who got more than one ballot Republicans?”
Broadhurst noted that her son and daughter-in-law, who vote by mail regularly, received single ballots.
Voters with questions about election issues may contact the Elections Division at 805-781-5228 or visit slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Clerk-Recorder/Elections-and-Voting.aspx.
There is still time to register to vote if you have not done so or if you moved. You can register online at www.slovote.com until midnight on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 11:49 AM.
