Reply #8: S.D. runs short of absentee ballots [View All]

[Melissa G]

San Diego Union-Tribune
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061103/news_1n3ballots.html

S.D. runs short of absentee ballots

Photocopies mailed; registrar says all votes will be counted

By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
STAFF WRITER

November 3, 2006

If you got your absentee ballot in the mail and
it looks suspiciously like a photocopy of a
regular ballot, that's because, well, it is.

snip

The San Diego County Registrar's Office mailed
photocopies of regular ballots after it ran short of absentee ballots.
But there's nothing to fear, Haas said. “Their votes will be counted.”
When those ballots are returned, registrar's
employees will copy voters' choices by hand onto
regular card stock ballots that can be run
through the optical scanners that count the votes.

snip


“I just think it's bizarre that they literally
transfer people's votes from one piece of paper
to another,” said San Diego County Democratic
Party Chairman Jess Durfee. “Any time you do
that, there have got to be mistakes.”

Haas said the ballots were to be printed by
Diebold, the same company that makes the
electronic touchscreen machines that will be used
Tuesday. Diebold officials told him there had
been problems with the printing press operation, Haas said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061103/news_1n3ballots.html