39K Nevada Voters To Receive New Ballots Following Clerk Error

Approximately 39,000 voters in Carson City, Nevada, will receive new ballots next week after an error by the clerk’s office mistakenly listed a third-party candidate as a Democrat.

The revelation came after the Nevada Appeal reported on Saturday that Carson City residents who received their mail-in ballots for the 2024 election discovered a mistake pertaining to the Silver State’s 2nd Congressional District. Lynn Chapman — a member of the Independent American Party — was incorrectly listed as a Democrat.

The mistake was not present on sample ballots, the outlet reported.

Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District is considered safe for Republicans this November, according to RealClearPolling. The seat has been held by GOP Rep. Mark Amodei since 2011.

Unlike most states, Nevada requires local clerks to automatically mail individuals listed on the state’s active voter registration list a ballot during each election cycle, according to Ballotpedia.

When pressed on the matter by The Federalist, Carson City Clerk-Recorder Scott Hoen took responsibility for the “honest mistake,” saying he and his office “simply didn’t catch it when [they] were proofreading” the ballots. He disclosed that approximately 39,000 mailed ballots are affected by the issue and added that his office “is in the process of sending out a corrected ballot to replace the original early next week.”

As described by Hoen and further detailed in a press release issued by his office, “All returned original ballots will be held until the corrected ballot is returned or the voter votes in person.” If a voter who returned their original ballot does not submit their corrected ballot and “does not vote in person,” Hoen’s office “will count the original ballot,” according to the presser.

“We will hold [a voter’s] original [ballot] until the last minute and will count their original in the event we don’t receive a corrected ballot,” Hoen told The Federalist. “All in person voting systems [have] already been fixed and ready for the election.”

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When pressed by The Federalist on what processes his office has in place to ensure both ballots issued to and returned by the same voter are not counted, Hoen said that they “are putting those processes and procedures in writing as we speak to be very clear on all the possible outcomes.”

“We are fortunate to have great vendor support from ES&S (Election Systems and Software) along with the state’s new top-down voter registration system called VREMS (Voter Registration Election and Management System) and their vendor,” Hoen said. “They are working through the processes with development to make sure we count correctly and give the appropriate voter credit.”

The Clerk-Recorder’s office presser further detailed that “[r]eturn ballot envelopes have unique IDs assigned to the voter and in-person voters are tracked through Nevada’s Voter Registration Election Management System, ensuring that only one ballot will be counted,” according to the Nevada Appeal.