Monday, December 9, 2024

Ballot Blunder: Mendocino County’s Error in Mailing Incorrect Primary Election Ballots

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The following is a press release issued by Katrina Bartolomie Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder:


Elections Voting Ballot Box
[This stock image was taken by Matt LaFever]

On Monday, February 5, 2024, the Elections Office mailed ballots for the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary Election to all active Mendocino County registered voters. Late yesterday afternoon, the Elections Office was notified by some recipients of those ballots that there were errors in certain ballots.    

The Elections Office has since learned that every voter in Mendocino County received a Republican ballot for the First Supervisorial District regardless of their party affiliation. Additionally, the Elections Office believes there may be errors in all ballots mailed out, even those ballots for voters registered Republican in the First District.

The Elections Office has been working with the vendor that printed the ballots to quickly remedy the error. The error was caused by a third-party vendor. The vendor is printing replacement ballots for all active Mendocino County registered voters and will mail them out, at the vendor’s expense, to all registered voters early next week.  

If any voter has already voted and returned the ballot they received, please contact the Election / County Clerk’s Office as soon as possible. Our office will also reach out to voters who returned one of the ballots mailed on February 5, 2024, to make sure the voter is provided the correct ballot. 

Please note that military and overseas ballots were not affected by this error. Military and overseas voters received correct ballots.

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I would like to thank those voters who called to let us know about this error.

If you have any questions, please contact the Election / County Clerk’s Office by calling 707-234-6819 or emailing us at mcvotes@mendocinocounty.gov 

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15 COMMENTS

  1. How will the Country make sure that the incorrect ballots are not used by mistake?
    Will they print the correct ones on a different color paper?

  2. Who proofread the ballots before approving them for print? Anyone? No one?

    Printing companies require sign off as to form being approved. Did that happen? If not, why not?

    Who is the vendor?

  3. We also received a ballot for voting in district #1 instead of district #2 where we actually reside. Hope that error is also corrected. What a mess!

  4. WHO are the vendors and why did YOU hire them? This error should not be swept aside. Mailing every voter in Mendocino County a ballot with errors is not a small mistake! How about accepting responsibility?
    Katrina Bartolomie Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder should be held accountable. Add this to the list with the Auditor mess and moving the VETS to a cubicle.
    This county has the worst leadership! Vote for competent people.

    • This is why the BOS is planning on making the Auditor an appointed position. The Assessor Clerk Recorder etc… is protected by proposition 66 (circa 1988) to only be elected by the county voters. If no one runs against her, this county is stuck with her or until a new state proposition successfully passes and allows assessor’s to be appointed by the BOS or a non-partisan committee.

  5. It seems like Mendo Fever is only posting part of the info from the county – there’s a FAQ sheet on the county of Mendocino Facebook page that has a lot of info. Maybe you all should check that out before you are convinced the election employees did anything wrong…

  6. Just received 2 of the replacement ballots; exactly the same except 1 has “I Voted” sticker, one does not. 1 has yellow card explaining prior error, 1 does not. Am I missing something?

    • My neighbor did too, when she called the elections office, they looked at her record and found she had gone to dmv after the mailing file was sent to be printed. They told her if you renew your license the questions on dmv site can be confusing and you reregister without realizing it. They told her in some cases people have reregistered to vote after the file was sent not realizing…call the election office – most likely there’s a simple reason – call them!

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MendoFever Staff
MendoFever Staff
Editor's Note: Whenever an article's byline reads "MendoFever Staff", the contents of that article were not composed by any of our reporters. Types of writing that will be attributed to "MendoFever Staff" include press releases, letters to the editor, op-eds, obituaries— essentially writing that is not produced by a reporter.

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