Welcome to Skagit County
October 26th, 2006
SKAGIT COUNTY BALLOT ERROR DUE TO SOFTWARE GLITCH
SKAGIT COUNTY – Shortly after the Skagit County Auditor’s office was notified that the ballots they had mailed to voters had failed to include the ballot titles of four state-wide ballot issues, staff began investigating how the error occurred.
The error was not a printer’s error, but a software program flaw where the missing text did not transfer from one program to another. A proof was printed of the ballot and appeared correct, but when the information that did not appear on the ballot was transferred to a document format digital file (pdf) to be sent to the printer, it did not transfer. “When both the audio and text were transferred from one program to another, certain non-printable characters caused the text in question to be eliminated from the printed ballot,” said Deputy Auditor David Cunningham.
On October 5, 2006, the Auditor’s office sent the ballot to the printer. On October 7, 2006, the Auditor’s office received an e-mail from their software vendor that there was a chance such an error could occur. The e-mail stated, “Though it’s a bit late for this election, please apply this error correction procedure in the future,” according to Cunningham.
“This led Skagit County staff to think the problem was not relevant to this election,” he said.
“We followed the same process we’ve used for the past five elections with no problem, so this was an unfortunate glitch,” said Cunningham. “We’ve since taken preventative action to check for the possibility of this happening again before we go to press.”
The Skagit County Auditor’s Office mailed out a letter to every registered voter today with the ballot titles of the four state-wide issues with instructions on how to request a replacement ballot if the voter has already voted and would like to change their vote. Also, the information is prominently displayed on Skagit County’s website at www.skagitcounty.net . In addition advertising has been placed in the Skagit Valley Herald and on local radio stations notifying the public that they will be receiving the supplemental information.
“We’ve been in close contact with the Secretary of State and the Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, and the Secretary of State has been in contact with the State Attorney General’s Office. We are taking every action possible to correct the situation and get complete information to the public,” said Skagit County Auditor Norma Brummett.
For further information,
contact: David Cunningham
Elections Department
360-336-9305