The D.C. Board of Election sent the wrong ballots to 574 voters, and says it is contacting the impacted voters and will issue them new ballots.
The error was caused by incorrect [Advisory Neighborhood Commission] information due to redistricting,” according to elections board spokesman Nicholas Jacobs.
Earlier this year the city finished its once-a-decade redrawing of ward and ANC boundaries, the latter portion of which was completed in June and required the board to make block-by-block changes to many ANCs. The error means that those 574 voters got ballots that do not reflect the new boundaries they reside in.
“We have been calling and reaching out to these voters to inform them of the error, we’ve invalidated their ballot and issued a new, correct ballot,” said Jacobs.
Earlier this month the board mailed out some 400,000 ballots to every registered voter in D.C. As of Monday, almost 30,000 ballots had been submitted by mail or via drop boxes.
Some residents have also reported receiving ballots for people no longer living at that address; elections board officials ask that those ballots be marked “Return to sender” and dropped back in the mail.
Early in-person voting starts on Oct. 31, and anyone voting with their mail ballot can return it by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 8. If you’re mailing your ballot in, it has to be postmarked by Election Day and be received by the elections board within seven days.
For more information on the D.C. races and candidates, see the DCist/WAMU Voter Guide here.
Martin Austermuhle