Photo by VotePrime.

A Spanish-language instruction displayed on electronic voting machines being used for the April 1 primary is incorrect and there’s no time to fix it.

The Washington Post was alerted to this issue by Edgardo Guerrero, who cast his vote Monday at One Judiciary Square:

The 47-year-old Bloomingdale resident had opted for a Spanish-language ballot, and as he prepared to finalize his choices, he was informed, “¡Boleta incompleta! No ha seleccionado opción alguna en ninguna contienda.” Translation: “Ballot incomplete: You haven’t selected an option in any of the contests.”

Problem was, Guerrero had made choices in most of the races on the ballot, though he did leave at least one office blank. He reviewed his ballot, tried submitting his choices again, and was given the same message.

As D.C. Board of Elections executive director Clifford D. Tatum confirmed in a statement released today, “the instruction implies that incomplete ballots cast in Spanish will not be counted. This instruction is incorrect.”

Upon examining the issue, we immediately contacted Election Systems & Software, which produces and supplies the iVotronic voting machines for DCBOE. We determined that we cannot immediately reprogram the iVotronics, as doing so would disrupt Early Voting and Election Day on April 1. However, we are working to ensure the problem will be corrected in time for the November 4 General Election.

We understand the concerns of our Spanish-speaking voters and assure them that all ballots will be tabulated. All voters should know that we conducted extensive logic and accuracy testing of our voting machines beginning February 18, 2014, and we are confident that all votes are being counted despite yesterday’s error.

As Tatum said and the Post reported, special instructions in Spanish have been posted next to voting machines and around polling places. Voters may also use paper ballots.

“Again, we want to reiterate that all votes will be counted regardless of the method utilized, and we apologize for any confusion this situation has caused,” Tatum said.