Officials send new ballots to correct minor errors in Humboldt, Lyon counties
CARSON CITY — Balloting information enclosed with mail-in ballots sent to voters in Lyon and Humboldt counties will be redistributed to correct errors in the original materials, but the errors have no effect on the ballots themselves, the secretary of state’s office said Monday.
In Lyon County, a sheet of instructions wrongly indicated that only the voter or an immediate family member is permitted to drop off a ballot in person. That requirement was amended by the Legislature this summer to permit voters to let anyone return their ballot on their behalf.
Lyon County officials “failed to update this section of their instructions sheet” to account for the law change, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said in a statement.
In Humboldt, the voter declaration on the ballot return envelope mistakenly says White Pine County instead of Humboldt County. Both counties use the same ballot printing vendor, and Humboldt election officials failed to notice the error when proofing the materials, Cegavske noted. All other information on the return envelope is correct, including the county clerk’s address, so ballots will delivered to the right place.
The counties are reprinting and resending the materials with an explanation letter to all active registered voters. The errors don’t affect ballots themselves, and voters can use them to vote by mail.
In Humboldt, voters can use either the original return envelope or the new one being sent to them. If they use the original, they can cross out “White Pine” on the voter declaration and replace it with “Humboldt,” but that is not required, Cegavske said in the statement. No Humboldt County ballots will be disqualified for using the inaccurate envelope.
Contact Capital Bureau reporter Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.