A ballot-reading error that would have affected more than half of Long Beach’s voting precincts was discovered by the City Clerk’s office a little more than a week before elections are held for 14 major city and educational posts.
City Clerk Larry Herrera said that during a routine “logic and accuracy” test conducted last Friday to ensure votes are being accurately recorded, he found that the software was not recognizing votes on the second page of some ballots. Because the contests in 169 of the city’s 295 precincts include a city council election in addition to a LBUSD School Board election and a LBCC Trustee, ballots for the April 8 election–for the first time since 2007–are requiring two-pages.
Herrera told the L.A. Times that in the last seven years, some of the tabulation processes have changed but they were not readjusted for the two-page ballots. At no cost to the City, then, replacement ballots for next Tuesday were reprinted for the impacted council districts and a second test was successfuly conducted for all 295 precincts.
“Long Beach voters should know that Logic and Accuracy tests are in place exactly for this purpose, i.e., to ensure the accurate tabulation of all votes cast,” said Herrera. “While it is unfortunate that this event occurred, our long time printer, K&H Integrated Print Solutions, has collaborated with my office in taking responsible and prompt action to print replacement ballots.”
Starting yesterday, election employees began the ardous task of hand duplicating all of the two-page vote-by-mail ballots, selections on which which need to be copied onto the replacement ballots then re-counted. So far, Herrera says his office has received around 13,000 vote-by-mail ballots so far, around 9,000 of which have a second page.
The process of duplication of vote-by-mail ballots is open to the public, including candidates, and will continue until April 7. As required by a law, duplicates will be coded so they can be traced to the original in case there is a dispute.
“My announcement of what occurred is intended to demonstrate the full transparency of municipal elections in Long Beach,” continued Herrera. “I am grateful for the hard work of our election employees and K & H for bringing about a quick solution to the challenge we faced…I want every voter and candidate to know that our duplication process will accurately record every vote as required by law.”
Read more: