Updated 2:55 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024
On Monday, after the Appeal reported an error in Carson City General Election mail ballots voters received Saturday, Carson City Clerk-Recorder Scott Hoen announced the office would be resending mail ballots with corrections.
“The Carson City Clerk-Recorder is resending ballots to all Carson City voters following the discovery of an error on ballots mailed to voters,” the Clerk-Recorder’s Office said in an Oct. 7 news release. “Candidate Lynn Chapman was mistakenly identified as Democrat or ‘DEM’ on the mail ballot, but the correct designation, which appears here, is Independent American Party or ‘IAP.’
“Every voter will receive a new ballot, listing the correct party affiliation, which will be mailed the week of Oct. 14.”
That error the Appeal found was regarding the race for U.S. Congress District 2. Other candidates are incumbent Mark Amodei, a Republican, Greg Kidd who is not affiliated with a political party, and Javi “Trujillo” Tachiquin of the Libertarian Party of Nevada.
If voters have already returned their original mail ballot, a news release issued Oct. 9 said: "If you have mailed or returned your original ballot: Fill out this new ballot and return it by mail, deliver it to the Elections Department or deposit it in a ballot drop box location. If we receive the corrected ballot, we will not count the original one."
For those who have not voted on the original ballot, the Oct. 9 release said, "Tear and throw away the original ballot, the envelope, and everything inside it. Then, fill out the new corrected ballot and return it by mail, deliver it to the Elections Department or deposit it at a ballot drop box location. For more information about drop off locations, go to carson.org/2024election."
Election Day is Nov. 5, and early voting begins Oct. 19.
Hoen told the Appeal in-person voting will not be affected by the errors. He said original mail ballots will still be counted if the office doesn’t receive corrected ballots, though he couldn’t explain the ramifications of someone thinking they were voting for an improperly identified partisan candidate.
Hoen also couldn’t provide a cost estimate for the re-balloting in time for the Appeal’s deadline Monday but confirmed the error in a federal race made corrected ballots necessary.
“Return 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,” the Oct. 7 release said. “All returned original ballots will be held until the corrected ballot is returned or the voter votes in person. If the corrected ballot from a voter who returned the original ballot is not returned and the voter does not vote in person, the Clerk-Recorder’s office will count the original ballot.”
Hoen pointed out the sample ballot, which some residents hadn’t received as of Monday, had the correct information. Another error in the mail ballot was corrected in a notice obtained by the Appeal on Monday. That error was from spelling Carson City School District Trustee 5 candidate Ashliee Saucedo’s first name wrong. On the original mail ballot, it was spelled “Ashilee.”
The Appeal contacted the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office for comment on the first error regarding party affiliation but did not hear back before the Appeal’s deadline.
Hoen's office on Oct. 9 also issued a set of frequently asked questions accessed here: https://www.carson.org/government/departments-a-f/clerk-recorder/elections-department/2024-ballot-faq
"Additional processes are being implemented to prevent similar issues in the future," the Oct. 9 release said.