Mail-in ballots arrive with wrong return address
By JEFF RHODES
Port Orchard Independent Editor
July 31, 2009 · Updated 10:56 AM
An incorrect return address on some Kitsap County ballots has caused some voter confusion but does not affect the voting process, according to the county auditor.
Auditor Walt Washington reported that his office has received reports of ballots arriving in local mailboxes with a Whatcom County return address.
“The ballots themselves are correct, and the return address on the enclosed envelope is correct,” Washington said, “so there’s no reason the ballots and envelopes can’t be used. The mistake is with the envelopes the ballots were sent in.”
Washington said the mixup occurred at K & H Printing in Everett, speculating that a box of Whatcom County envelopes were in the wrong place. To his knowledge, only a few hundred ballots from a Bremerton precinct were involved.
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of how many of these were sent out in the wrong envelope and why it happened,” he said. “We just don’t want people to think that their ballot can’t be used because of this. Everything that matters about the ballot and the return envelope is correct.”
Anyone receiving an incorrectly marked ballot should cast their vote as usual, but should also call the auditor to report the mistake.
For more information, voters can call the Kitsap County Auditor’s Office at (360) 337-7129.
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