Vendor Election IQ sent out 670 absentee ballots to the wrong people in Delaware County, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday.
The information on the ballots did not contain the voters’ correct mailing addresses, which resulted in many people receiving other people’s ballots. If voters did not notice the error, they could have inadvertently voted under the incorrect name, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. (RELATED: Compton City Councilman Who Won Election By One Vote Charged With Election Fraud)
As a result, two candidates for city council, Frank Agovino and Joseph Lombardo, are reportedly suing the vendor.
Delco mailed 670 ballots to the wrong people. Now two candidates are suing ahead of Tuesday’s election. https://t.co/gq9aEnuEBP
— The Philadelphia Inquirer (@PhillyInquirer) October 29, 2021
Kathy Bogosian, a county resident in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, said that she received a ballot with someone else’s name inside, Delaware Valley Journal reported.
“I was concerned. If I got one wrong ballot, then other people did, too,” Bogosian said. “I thought, ‘What idiots.'”
The election is on Tuesday, Nov. 2, and involves local municipal and county officials and school board members. Such elections are usually close, Bogosian told the Journal.
“A few ballots could make a big difference,” she said.
James Allen, Director of Election Operations, reportedly claimed that the error resulted from Election IQ misprinting outbound envelopes. He said none of those ballots would be valid.
“In one of the smaller, final files, our printing and mailing vendor misprinted outbound envelopes,” Allen said, according to Delaware Valley Journal. “Those envelopes (and their contents) are being canceled so that even if they were to be returned, they cannot be processed. The vendor is working to mail out replacements to the affected individuals.”
Lawyer Michael Puppio filed for an emergency hearing regarding the issue. He stated that the errors have put “the integrity of the municipal election … at stake,” the Inquirer reported. The courts granted a hearing for Saturday afternoon.
The county stated that it had implemented a plan to remedy the situation. They will be sending out new ballots to the voters who were impacted by the error, the Inquirer reported.