Ballot error produces 183 invalid votes

The voter called election officials the Friday after election day, and the department notified the county’s contracted ballot printer immediately and investigated. They found about 400 voters in the Madera area had been sent ballots that included the extra race.

“We were able to isolate most of the returned vote-by-mail ballots and correct the error. Approximately 183 incorrect ballots were counted,” said Elections Division manager Stephanie Sibley, who noted that those who voted at a vote center received correct ballots.

The ballot printer, ProVote Solutions of Porterville, told officials it was able to identify both the mistake and the remedy to prevent it from happening again. The company has clients in 40 countries, it claims, and handled ballots for 42 U.S. counties in five states in 2008.

This isn’t the first time a ballot error has been made by ProVote Solutions. Another mistake in 2010 resulted in Sonoma County ballots being sent to the wrong voting block, according to The Press Democrat. About 15,600 voters had to be sent corrected ballots in that incident.

ProVote Solutions could not be reached for comment before press time.

Madera County said it notified affected candidates after determining which ballots were affected. The issue only impacted the outcome of the close race for Madera Unified School District trustee for area 5, the elections department said Nov. 16.

Final local election results can be viewed online at votemadera.com.