US presidential primaries: “Some residents were aghast to find they had voted though they didn’t participate”

Photo: AP

The Nevada primary has come and gone, but some residents were aghast to find they had voted in this contest even though they didn’t participate.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that voters noticed irregularities in their voter histories on February 18. The state said it was a system glitch, which they hope to resolve soon. They were clear that it had nothing to do with tabulations but the code that identifies Nevada voters and mail-in ballots that aren’t returned (via Las Vegas Review-Journal).

After numerous Nevada voters saw irregularities in their voter history on Sunday, the secretary of state’s office said it has identified the issues and is fixing them, according to a statement Monday evening.

The office learned there were possible technical issues relating to Nevadans’ voting history for people who did not participate in the Feb. 6 presidential primary.

Las Vegas resident and registered Republican Daphne Lee said she and her family checked the secretary of state’s website on Sunday to see their voter history after she heard from a few people that their voting history was incorrect. The site showed that she and her family’s mail-in ballots were counted for the primary, even though none of them participated in the election. She tried to opt out of future mail-in ballots and was met with a message saying she was not currently registered to vote, and her voting history no longer existed.

“It’s just so frustrating,” Lee said in a phone interview. “This makes everyone uncomfortable.”

For the state officials trying to fix this mess, how do you reconcile saying, “This is an error that relates to the code used for when a voter is sent a mail ballot and does not return it; it has no connection in any way to vote tabulation,” and then people alleging the ballots they never mailed in were counted. It sounds like that’s more than a technical glitch, no?

Still, this is not a little problem; it speaks to election integrity. It’s mundane, but keeping proper records and making sure people who haven’t voted aren’t counted is — I don’t know — pretty important.

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