Clackamas County - OR issued the following announcement on May 4.
The following release is from the office of the Clackamas County Clerk:
It has come to the office of the County Clerk's attention that some ballots printed for the May 17, 2022 Primary Election have barcodes that are blurred. This was a printing issue with an external printer who has printed ballots for Clackamas County for more than 10 years with no issues. This defect in the printed ballot causes the affected ballots to be rejected by the county's automated ballot processing equipment. The ballots with the defect are validly cast votes, and will be tallied.
The defective bar codes do not identify voters nor do they relate in any way to voter's selections on candidates or measures. They are a code that identifies the “ballot style” so that the equipment can tally the votes in the correct elections.
A certain number of ballots that are received in every election are damaged in handling, in the mail, or while in the possession of the voters due to beverage spills and similar accidents. There is a routine process for handling those ballots. The original ballots themselves are retained. At least two election workers of different political affiliations transfer the votes to a machine-readable duplicate ballot. The workers must agree that the votes cast on the original ballot have been correctly transferred to the “duplicate” ballot to be read by the machine. The duplicate ballot is then included in the batch to be processed in place of the damaged ballot. The damaged ballot is retained.
While there are damaged ballots and ballots marked in a fashion that they are not machine-readable in virtually every election, the incidents are ordinarily very small. Preliminary batch runs for the current election lead the County Clerk to believe that the numbers for this election are higher than usual and that additional time and effort will be necessary. The entire process of ballot duplication for the machine-unreadable ballots will be witnessed by election observers, but, the level of activity will be higher than they have been seen in the past. Observable colored lanyards identify the political affiliation of election workers and are worn at all times so that observers can be sure that the correct process is being used.
County Clerk Sherry Hall stated:
“It is our objective to count every validly cast vote in this election and every election. Our voters are entitled to expect nothing less. We have plans and procedures in place to competently and correctly respond with this situation and many others. Fortunately, recent legislative and regulatory changes allowed my staff to identify this problem early in the election and have provided additional time to deal with it. It is simply a matter of staffing up and scaling up a process that has been vetoed and is already in use. While legislative changes will delay final election results, that delay is due to the shift from a close of polls at 8 PM on Election Day cutoff for receipt of ballots to an Election Day postmark cutoff for ballots. We simply will not have them all to count at 8 PM on Election Day. The delay is not caused by the need to duplicate ballots that are not machine-readable in their original form. There is no better election staff than the one we have here in Clackamas County and we expect to meet all deadlines for the release of tallies and certification of results in spite of the increase in workload.”
For further information, members of the public or media can contact Clackamas County Elections at 503-655-8510.
Clackamas County Clerk's Office Statement dated May 4, 2022
The county clerk has learned that some paper ballots for the May 17, 2022 primary election have barcodes that appear blurred. There was a printing error with a third-party printer that has been printing ballots for Clackamas County for over 10 years with no problems. The paper ballot defect causes the county's automated ballot processing equipment to reject affected ballots. Ballots with the defect are valid votes that will be counted.
Defective barcodes do not identify voters or link them in any way to voters' choices of candidates or measures. They are a code that identifies the “ballot style” so that the team can count the votes in the correct elections.
In every election, a certain number of ballots are received that are damaged in handling, in the mail, or while in voters' possession due to drink spills or similar accidents. There is a routine process for handling those ballots. Original ballots are retained. At least two election staff members of different political affiliations transfer votes to machine-readable duplicate ballots. Staff must agree that the votes cast on the original ballot have been correctly transferred to the “duplicate” ballot for the machine to read. The duplicate ticket is included in the batch to process instead of the damaged ticket. The damaged ballot is then retained.
Although there are damaged ballots and ballots marked in a way that the machine cannot read in almost every election, these incidents are usually very few. Preliminary batch processing for the current election has indicated to the county clerk that the numbers for this election will be higher than normal and additional time and effort will be required. The entire process of duplicating ballots for ballots that cannot be read by the machine will be observed by election supervisors, but the level of activity will be higher than we have previously observed. Visible colored lanyards identify the political affiliation of election staff and should be worn at all times so supervisors can ensure the correct process is being implemented.
County Clerk Sherry Hall stated:
“Our goal is to count all valid votes cast in this and every election. This is the minimum that our voters have the right to demand. We have implemented plans and procedures to competently and correctly respond to this situation, and many others. Fortunately, recent legislative and regulatory changes allowed my staff to identify this issue early in the election and we have had additional time to address it. It is simply a matter of having more staff and expanding the process that has already been approved and is already in use. Although the legislative changes will delay the final results of the election, the delay is due to the change in the cut-off time for receipt of ballots: from the time the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day to the closing time of the postal service on Election Day. We just won't have all the ballots by 8:00 pm on Election Day to count them. The delay will not be caused by the need to duplicate ballots that the machines cannot read in their original format. The elections staff we have here in Clackamas County couldn't be better, and we look forward to meeting all deadlines to release the recount and certification of results despite the increased workload."
For more information, members of the public or the media may contact Clackamas County Elections at 503-655-8510.
Original source can be found here.
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