A wave of concern hit when a printer mailed registration cards to nearly one million voters in Nassau County, New York, labeling them all Democrats.
“It’s a terrible error. People are upset. People are angry. There is a lot of confusion,” GOP Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said Tuesday, according to the New York Post.
In a social media post, Blakeman demanded the Board of Elections’ vendor address and remedy the problem that resulted in almost 600,000 voters being assigned the wrong political party.
“The Board of Elections must review their procedures to ensure this disturbing error never occurs again. We will hold them accountable,” he said:
The Board of Elections’ vendor must IMMEDIATELY fix to the problem that caused nearly 600,000 voters to be assigned to…
Posted by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Democrats are approximately 40 percent of the area’s over 900,000 voters, and Blakeman ruled out partisanship as the reason behind the mistake.
The Post article said officials are investigating the matter. The outlet continued:
This week’s flub by the Rochester-based Phoenix Graphics comes two years after the company messed up absentee ballots for 100,000 Brooklynites shortly before the 2020 election, prompting outrage from voters concerned about whether their votes would count. The mistake extended into Nassau County as well, where nearly 800 people also received botched ballots.
According to its website, Phoenix Graphics, Inc. said its “vote-by-mail election expertise is rooted in 40+ years of election-printing experience. Last year alone we printed, tracked, and mailed more than 7 million ballots.”
Now, Phoenix will reportedly pay about $300,000 to send out corrected registration cards, according to Democrat County Election Commissioner Jim Scheuerman.
The primary is one month away and Blakeman said citizens who are registered Republicans are calling and asking why they are being labeled Democrats, NBC New York reported Tuesday.
The printing company has since deemed it a human error, offered apologies, and described it as an isolated incident.
In reference to the problem, one woman said, “That’s not acceptable,” while another called it “A little scary, just a little.”
“That’s neglect. I mean, a company that’s sending out an important document like that, that’s not good,” someone else commented:
Updated cards are expected to arrive soon, per the Board of Elections.
Meanwhile, Blakeman said he does not believe the Democrat Party is trying to “create havoc in their own primaries,” adding, “I don’t think the Democratic Party wants a bunch of Republicans showing up to vote in their primaries.”
