Election workers accidentally knocked 69 Snohomish County voters off the rolls but discovered and fixed the error last week.
The figure had been feared to be as high as 200, but dropped after election workers manually put voters back onto the rolls.
The workers incorrectly processed a batch of ballot envelopes dropped off by voters as if they had been returned as “undeliverable” by the post office.
Officials said the error happened when election workers were scanning envelope barcodes and failed to switch software options in a program that can credit voters for voting or make them inactive.
Two workers were sharing a hand scanner to read barcodes on primary ballot envelopes, county election manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said.
One batch of envelopes with address problems was returned as undeliverable by the post office; another batch of envelopes was dropped off by voters.
A worker scanned envelopes from one batch and then the next without first switching software options. As a result, 69 active voters were made inactive and put on a special mailing list of 4,200 inactive voters.
“We know their ballots counted,” county elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said. “We know that they were given credit, but they were also placed in inactive status in error.”
Those voters were sent letters directing them to call officials or risk not getting a general election ballot.
As many as 40 people called officials and signaled the error. Some said they were active voters who had not changed addresses for years, Diepenbrock said.
On Friday, officials manually reactivated the voters’ status and each will receive a ballot. Snohomish County voters can check their status online at www1.co.snohomish.wa.us by searching for “voter registration verification.”
Diepenbrock said workers are forced to do too much in too little time between the primary and general elections. They count ballots for the primary while also purging inactive voters in time for the general election.
That won’t be a problem next year when the primary election will be held in August instead of September, she said.
That will allow workers to put off scanning undeliverable ballot envelopes until after the primary ballots are tallied.
“It’s very fortunate that the primary has been moved,” she said. “Trying to run a primary close to the general (election) has been ripe for mistakes. We’re fortunate we found this mistake right away and were able fix it and everyone will receive their ballot.
“Next year, we’ll be in a position of having more time between elections.”
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
Check voter status
Snohomish County voters can check their status online at www1.co.snohomish.wa.us by searching for “voter registration verification.” A screen will ask for name and birth date.
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