Ballot snafu could affect D.C. absentee voters   (DC)

Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio   23 October 2008

WASHINGTON - Voters in the District of Columbia who requested an absentee ballot may have received the wrong ballot.

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics has only received one complaint from a voter who was sent the wrong ballot, but the problem could extend beyond one incident, D.C. BOEE spokesman Dan Murphy says.

The District has sent out about 15,000 absentee ballots so far, but Murphy says only a small number of voters could be affected.

Murphy says the problem occurred because some of the District's Single Member Districts (SMD) cross Ward lines. SMDs are small districts represented by Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners.

In the one reported case, a voter in SMD 2F03 was sent a Ward 6 ballot. The voter lives in Ward 2.

The D.C. Republican Party, which was first to make the error public, expressed concern.

"We hope the D.C. government will be able to hold a fair election on Nov. 4," D.C. Republican Committee Executive Director Paul Craney says.

D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans, who is running for re-election in Ward 2, says there is a bigger problem with the ballot that was incorrectly mailed.

"This is an illegal ballot," Evans says. "There is nobody who can vote with this ballot."

Evans says if the ballot was intended for Ward 6 voters - as the Board maintains - there should not be an option to vote for a Ward 2 ANC commissioner, but there is.

"The over arching question is that we are going to have a record turnout on Election Day," Evans says. "There is no excuse for us not be ready by now."

Evans has asked the Board to review the ballots as quickly as possible.

"When things go wrong, there is an opportunity for chicanery," Evans says.

Murphy says the ballots are printed and mailed by an outside vendor, Sequoia Voting Systems.

Sequoia is the same vendor that provides the voting machines that were involved in the problems during the Sept. 9 primary. In that case, the Board released incorrect election results after problems with the voting equipment.