PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. — Pueblo County ballots for the upcoming primary election had to be reprinted after a commissioners race didn’t appear on certain ballots.
Gilbert Ortiz, the Pueblo County Clerk, confirmed there was a human-caused error that led to the District 3 County Commissioners race only appearing on ballots for voters in Commissioner District 3, even though every voter in Pueblo County is eligible to vote in the race.
The error was discovered while the ballots were being printed, and the printing presses were stopped on Tuesday. Ortiz said Pueblo County Elections staff immediately began working with its print vendor and the Secretary of State’s Office to fix the issue.
The correct ballots have already been printed. It costs 19 cents to print a ballot, and it’s estimated the mistake will cost between $12,000-$13,000, though an exact cost is not yet known, Ortiz said.
Around 250 voters were sent the incorrect ballot because uniformed military and overseas voters’ ballots were already mailed. Those voters are being issued replacement ballots, and the original ballots have been voided in the Pueblo County Elections system, Ortiz said. Information about the issue and instructions about voting the replacement ballot have been sent to those voters.
Ortiz said no one was individually responsible for the mistake as everyone in the office is responsible for noticing these types of errors.
Election Day for the Colorado primaries is June 28, and the deadline for ballots to be mailed to voters is June 10. Ortiz said the correct ballots will make it to Pueblo County voters by this deadline.
