Absentee ballots to be corrected

Wednesday, October 6, 2004

The Press-Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO - Many absentee voters in the 31st State Senate and 62nd Assembly districts will receive corrected ballots later this week after the party affiliations of candidates in the two races were left off ballots already mailed.

About 60,000 absentee ballots mailed to voters did not identify Bob Dutton as a Republican and Marjorie Musser Mikels as a Democrat in the 31st State Senate District, or did not identify Marge Mendoza-Ware as a Republican and Joe Baca Jr. as a Democrat in the 62nd Assembly District.

The 31st State Senate District includes Big Bear Lake, Grand Terrace, Highland, Loma Linda, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Upland, Yucaipa, Yucca Valley, Crestline, Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs and portions of San Bernardino and Colton. The 62nd Assembly District includes San Bernardino, Colton, Rialto, and Fontana.

The county is attempting to identify how the error occurred, what the cost will be and how it will be borne.

Voters may receive the corrected ballot in the mail before they receive the erroneous ballot because the corrected ballots will be mailed first class starting Wednesday. The original ballots were mailed at the nonprofit rate.

The ballots without the party affiliations are valid and will be counted if used by voters. The error in no way affects the county's touch-screen voting machines, future absentee ballot mailings or the paper ballots that will be available at the polls.