County Recorder says statewide voter issue impacts some counties

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office said there has been a problem with the distribution of early ballots.

The office advised the Yuma County Recorder’s Office that the statewide voter system kept early ballot request information from the 2016 Primary Election.

Voters impacted may have received an early ballot for the upcoming Primary Election without having requested one. The Secretary of State’s Office said there may have been 660 Yuma County voters that may of received an unrequested ballot.

The Recorder’s Office expects the number of voters impacted to be much lower.

The office will now be contacting voters individually. Voters can either vote the early ballot they received, discard the ballot and request a new one, or they have the option to vote in-person at the Yuma County Recorder’s Office or a Vote Center on Election Day on August 28, 2018.

The deadline to request an early ballot to be mailed to you is Friday, August 17.

The Secretary of State’s Office said the error was due to an unresolved system error involving statewide vendor, and should not affect an overwhelming amount of voters.

Yuma County has worked with the Secretary of State’s Office in working through various issues and concerns of the outdated system that has been in place for over 10 years.

“Although we are disappointed in the system’s lack of capability to meet our needs, the State recently procured a new vendor for the statewide voter system. While the new system is not yet available, we are extremely excited with the testing being done to ensure this new system can be implemented for 2019,” explains Robyn Stallworth Pouquette, Yuma County Recorder.

The Recorder’s Office said it will continue to be on top of making sure this issue is taken care of moving forward.