St. Mary’s Board Of Elections Resolves Erroneous Addresses
LEONARDTOWN, Md. – Last week, on October 22, Delegate Matt Morgan (R) of St. Mary’s County notified his Facebook followers that the St. Mary’s Board of Elections had identified an error printed on sample ballots sent to St. Mary’s voters.
Of the over 68,000 sample ballots sent to voters ahead of early voting, around 6,900 listed incorrect addresses for early voting sites. According to Wendy Adkins, Director of St. Mary’s Board of Elections, there was a conflict in the programming between the local printer who had produced the ballots and the USPS. To remedy the confusion, the Board sent corrected post cards to voters with accurate polling place addresses.
Morgan posted a portion of the printer’s statement to the Board in his Facebook post: “The polling place street address mistakes on the Sample Ballots were caused by a programming conflict when they were run through the USPS system and the commercial sorting program we use during the mail preparation process. We could not have realized this, as the 6900 pieces were scattered throughout the over 68,000 mailed pieces. As we pulled one occasionally to check for print quality and accuracy, we did not recognize any errors. We regret this occurred and have sent a corrective mailing to clarify the street addresses.”
Adkins also provided more of the statement in an email. It continues: “We have been providing the sample ballots for St Mary’s County for many years and have never had an issue as this or any other with them at all. We used the same software we have in the past, although updated a few times over the last two years, and didn’t suspect any problems. With the USPS updating their databases daily and the advent of commercial software updates, these things will happen. I am sure you personally have come across problems with programs after updates. This is no more than just that – just on a larger scale.”
“We have discussed the issue with the USPS and our software company and once recognized, it has been corrected,” the printer said.
Morgan concluded his post by saying the issue was resolved and that the St. Mary’s Board of Elections had been transparent and prompt in handling the problem.
St. Mary’s voters can learn more about this address error and other election matters at https://www.stmaryscountymd.gov/supervisorofelections/. Other Maryland voters can find general election information at https://elections.maryland.gov/.
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