An estimated 1,667 ballots of 249,000 mailed out for Tuesday’s special election never got into the hands of Tucson voters.
An error by the Tucson City Clerk’s Office, which is handling the Proposition 101 election, sent the ballots to outdated addresses, which were then returned to the city.
The voters all had one thing in common — they changed their addresses recently. Specifically, moving from one address inside the city to another.
New voters and those who moved into the city were not affected by the issue. The city of Tucson mailed roughly 249,000 ballots as part of the mail-in election to decide whether to increase the city sales tax by a half-cent for five years to pay for road repairs and facilities and equipment for the police and fire departments.
County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez said the missing ballots could be an issue if the vote is close.
She predicted turnout will be higher than normal, noting that vote-by-mail elections in Oro Valley and other jurisdictions were higher than in previous regular elections.
City officials acknowledged the issue and added that a tight window between when the city got voter data from the county and when it needed to mail out ballots contributed to the error.
“The final voter registration list was provided by the county on April 21, but the City Clerk had already prepared the ballots for distribution on April 26,” a statement from the city read. “The City Clerk will work closely with the County Recorder to ensure this anomaly does not occur in future elections.”
A city official said they’ve identified the voters affected by the error and will be reaching out to them individually to help them vote Tuesday.
Christopher Roads, the chief deputy recorder in the Pima County Recorder’s Office, contacted the city to inform them about an estimated 1,667 ballots that did not get to voters. In a series of emails released by the county through a public-records request, records show the city was first made aware of the issue April 28.
“It appears that the data upload we provided on April 21 was not used to mail the ballots. If that is the case, your office mailed ballots to the wrong addresses for anyone who updated their address,” he wrote.
Instead, the city may have used data provided by the county from February.
“We are aware some of the voters’ ballots were sent to their old address,” responded Deborah Rainone, the chief deputy city clerk for Tucson.
Fred Solop, a political science professor at Northern Arizona University, is a proponent of vote-by-mail elections. He says it brings in a larger group of voters than with a typical polling place election.
Political scientists have learned from Oregon’s move to mail-in elections that they open up balloting to those who normally wouldn’t participate, he said.
In terms of the error, Solop said it can have an effect on a close election and the city should consider how to respond.
“It is always unfortunate when a mistake is made, but they happen and they are usually not malicious,” Solop said.
