Hundreds of duplicate ballots cause alarm in Bernalillo County
As the June 4 primary election approaches, some Bernalillo County voters have already begun submitting absentee ballots. However, a few voters were surprised to receive a second ballot in the mail.
According to Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover, this mistake does not mean that any votes will be counted twice, per KRQE 13. “The vendor now has made plans to not have that happen, we’re looking at it again,” Stover assured.
As of Monday, the clerk’s office had distributed nearly 16,000 absentee ballots to county residents. Of these, 452 voters received duplicate ballots. “On the 8th, we mailed out ballots,” Stover explained. “On the 9th, we mailed out ballots. Our vendor accidentally, on the 9th, picked up some of the ballots from the 8th.”
Stover mentioned that her team discovered the issue a day after the ballots were delivered. They noticed a discrepancy in the ballot count, which led them to realize that some ballots had been sent out twice. “We noticed a difference in the numbers,” Stover said.
Of the 452 duplicate ballots, 320 were sent to Democrat primary voters, and 132 were sent to Republicans. The county clerk’s office sent out a notification letter to those affected, explaining the error and providing instructions on what to do if they received a duplicate.
“Everybody that we had contact information on, like an email or a telephone number, we tried to contact,” Stover said. “We sent everybody a letter telling them what had happened and asked them to only vote the one ballot and to destroy the other.”
Stover clarified what happens if a voter returns both ballots. Each person has a voter ID and barcode linked to their ballot, ensuring that only one vote per person is counted. Any duplicate ballots that are submitted will be discarded.
“You can go to Berncoclerk.gov and look up your voter file, and you’ll see if your vote has been checked and done,” Stover added. “It’s very easy to do that.”
Stover emphasized that this is the first time such an incident has occurred during her tenure as county clerk. She encouraged anyone with questions about duplicate ballots to contact her office.