If you live in Wards 3, 5 or 6 and received a ballot that doesn’t match your party affiliation, you’re not alone.
Pima County officials last Friday confirmed a recent data error resulted in 358 voters being mailed the wrong ballots. But there’s still time to fix it ahead of the city of Tucson’s Aug. 5 primary election.
The city is mailing an official letter to voters impacted by the error, while the Pima County Recorder’s Office will also be contacting them using the phone numbers and email addresses listed in their voting records, the office said in a news release on Monday.
Here’s what you can do:
Visit the city’s Elections Center at 800 E. 12th St. to request a correct ballot. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Aug. 4.
Vote in person on Election Day, Aug. 5, at one of the city’s four designated locations open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Donna R. Liggins Recreation Center, 2160 N. 6th Avenue
- El Pueblo Senior Center, 101 W. Irvington Road
- Parks & Recreation Administration, 900 S. Randolph Way
- Tucson City Clerk Elections Center, 800 E. 12th Street
Check your ballot status on the Pima County Recorder’s Voter Dashboard, or contact the Tucson City Clerk’s Office at 520-791-3221 for help.
Hundreds sent wrong ballots ahead of Tucson primary
The mix-up began with a data file the Pima County Recorder’s Office sent to the city of Tucson on July 17 that contained updates to voter records for the city’s Aug. 5 primary, according to the news release. But the file also contained incorrect party affiliations for 1,294 voters across Wards 3, 5 and 6.
“Our primary concern is to ensure that all voters have the most accurate information needed to exercise their right to vote,” the recorder’s office stated in Monday’s news release.
Of those, 358 voters were mailed the wrong ballot, though none of those ballots have been tabulated and the issue was isolated to the data file itself, the news release states.
The error occurred when Recorder’s Office staff overrode a mechanism in the data system that blocks party changes during an active election. Officials say the override was necessary to accommodate three overlapping elections: the Congressional District 7 Special Primary, the City of Tucson Primary and the City of South Tucson Special Recall.
A majority of Tucson voters, or about 138,000, received correct ballots during the first round of mailings on July 9, according to the news release.
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