Pierce County election officials are mailing new ballots to 1,422 voters after a printing error led to residents of two precincts receiving ballots with the wrong congressional district.
The affected voters in South Tacoma, Parkland and Spanaway live in the new 10th Congressional District, but received ballots with candidates for the 6th District.
County officials attributed the mistake to their printing vendor using incorrect plates and to the elections division not catching the error. Elections officials audited all versions of the ballot on Monday to ensure no other mistakes were made.
The flawed ballots, if returned marked, will be flagged. If those voters don’t later submit replacement ballots, their original votes will remain valid in every race except the congressional district.
The error comes at a time when voters may be unsure of which races should be on their ballots. Every 10 years, political maps are redrawn to reflect population changes recorded in the latest U.S. Census. As a result, some voters are casting ballots in different county, legislative or congressional districts than they voted on previously.
In addition, Pierce Transit – which has a tax measure on the ballot – has shrunk its boundaries since the last time it went to voters.
Kim Bradford: kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com
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