Wrong deadline date in e-mail from Sedgwick County Election Office
.JPG "An e-mail from Sedgwick County Election Office misstated the date voters need to return the ballots. The e-mail correctly states Nov. 4 as the day that the election takes place, but tells voters “vote this ballot and return it to us no later than August 5th, 2014.”")
The Sedgwick County Election Office sent e-mails to overseas and military voters Saturday morning that included a wrong date for the general election.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach instructed county election officials Friday to mail ballots to the state’s 526 voters who are voting under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which requires counties to send ballots to those voters 45 days before the election, which is Nov. 4 this year.
Some of those voters receive their ballots via e-mail and others via the postal service.
An e-mail forwarded to the Eagle shows that the Sedgwick County Election Office misstated the date voters need to return the ballots. The e-mail correctly has Nov. 4 as the day the election takes place, but tells voters to “vote this ballot and return it to us no later than August 5th, 2014.”
Aug. 5 was the date of last month’s primary election.
The e-mail went to 33 voters.
Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman said it was “just a clerical error” and that the ballots themselves had the correct dates on them. She said the office sent corrected e-mails to those 33 voters Saturday evening after The Eagle brought it to her attention.
Lehman said that the election office’s “focus was making sure the ballot was correct” by removing Democrat Chad Taylor’s name after a Kansas Supreme Court order Thursday, and that the incorrect date was an oversight.
The e-mail also notes that new ballots may be sent pending a possible court ruling that would force the Democratic Party to name a candidate in the U.S. Senate race.
The Johnson County Election Office e-mailed 67 ballots with Taylor’s name on them before the Supreme Court’s ruling. On Friday, Johnson County e-mailed those voters new ballots without Taylor’s name. If the court rules that the Democrats must appoint a replacement for Taylor, those voters will be e-mailed a third ballot.
Reach Bryan Lowry at 785-296-3006 or blowry@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BryanLowry3.
This story was originally published September 20, 2014 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Wrong deadline date in e-mail from Sedgwick County Election Office."