BOISE, Idaho — Those in Jerome County who received the first absentee ballots will be reissued one in the mail as theirs has a printing error.
According to the Jerome County Clerk's Office, 484 absentee ballots were missing the language of the Open Primaries Proposition 1 initiative. The language was: "Replace voter selection of party nominees with a top-four primary; Require a ranked-choice voting system for general elections."
The initiative was certified to appear on the November ballot in July after the Secretary of State's Office verified the 62,895 petition signatures the Idaho for Open Primaries gathered.
Jerome County officials said everyone who received an error ballot would be sent a corrected one with the full language. Also, all future ballots will be updated with the corrections.
The Jerome County Clerk Cyrl Lootens shared a statement in the news release:
We were made aware of this error and immediately began to rectify the situation. We have been in constant contact with the Secretary of State's office to ensure we are following all the correct procedures and do what is best for the voters of Jerome County. We express our sincerest apologies to all voters effected.
All absentee voters effected will be mailed a new ballot to ensure that they have received all required information on their ballots which allows them to make the most informed decision with their vote. Voters that have already returned their ballots to the clerk's office or through the mail will receive a new ballot as well. We will be reaching out via phone or email to effected voters in the coming days to inform them of the error and what their next steps are.
Again, we sincerely apologize.
