LAKE COUNTY >> Several printing errors in the Lake County sample ballot booklets, discovered by the Registrar of Voters on Oct. 14, are causing the county to mail out a second issue of booklets to some residents and a supplemental booklet to all other voters.
The main error found in all of the booklets is that the first informational page of Measure O was replaced by a page on Measure L, the half-cent sales tax for Clear Lake that failed to pass in the June primaries.
Additionally, a mix-up in the type of booklets, as indicated on the back of the booklets by the numbers 2, 8, 10 and 11, were sent to 4,584 residents in some Lower Lake, Bell Park, Cow Mountain, Scotts Valley, Big Valley, Lands End, Lakeside Park and Donovan Valley precincts and all of the precincts within Lakeport city limits.
For instance, a voter mailed a Type 11 ballot with Congressional District 5 information in it should have received a Type 2 ballot with Congressional District 3 information.
Voters in these precincts who received the wrong type of booklet will be sent a complete reprint of the booklet. The remaining 28,329 voters will be sent a supplemental sample ballot booklet with all of the county measures reprinted and should keep the original booklet to refer to for the rest of the initiatives and candidates” information.
Confusing? According to Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley, the fault belongs with a Peak Election Services” typesetter and Commerce Printing.
The county sent Peak Election Services the final proofs of the pamphlets, but as the pamphlets are smaller than the 8.5-by-11 inch proofs submitted, the vendor”s typesetter must have had to condense the words on the proof, Fridley said. While the typesetter had Measure L”s informational pages from June and the page number for the first page of Measure O and the Measure L page are the same, Measure L”s page was mistakenly mixed into the November booklet.
The replacement and supplemental booklets will be printed and mailed at the printing vendor”s expense and not at the expense of Lake County taxpayers, Fridley stated.
While official vote-by-mail ballots can not be issued any sooner than 29 days before the election, the sample ballot booklets have to be mailed at least 10 days before the election (Oct. 25) to voters who registered 29 days before the election.
Fridley said she would hopefully know by tomorrow as to when residents can expect the replacement and supplemental booklets.
“We”re at the mercy of the printer at this point,” she said. “We”re working with the printing vendor right now; they”re aware of the problems and know they have to expedite the reprints.”
Fridley doesn”t believe the errors will make a difference in the election results since the majority of people that received their ballots early were military and overseas voters and they received all the correct information from the Registrar of Voters Office.
On the Lake County Community Awareness Facebook page, however, residents are highly critical of the errors, questioning whether they are truly a mistake, asserting a lawsuit may ensue and wondering how voters who don”t have internet access or read the Record-Bee newspaper will be informed of the errors. Others say a special election for Measure O is in order.
Fridley said information regarding the mix-up would be sent out with the booklets.
