Mix-up with voters’ envelopes

Some 2,000 Spokane County voters received ballots last week with the wrong return envelopes, but elections officials said it shouldn’t cause a problem for the March 11 ballot measures.

They can use the envelopes they received, which are left over from this month’s presidential primary, or wait for replacement envelopes, which should arrive in the mail this week.

Paul Brandt, the director of communications for the elections office, said voters in two precincts – 6151 in the south part of the city of Spokane and 6400 on the southwest edge of the city of Spokane Valley – mistakenly were sent ballots for the upcoming election with return envelopes from the presidential primary.

Those envelopes have “party oath” boxes that primary voters had to check to have their presidential nomination ballots tabulated.

Brandt said leftover primary envelopes were still at the mailing company when the March 11 ballots were being processed, and a box was inadvertently fed into a mailer. The elections office will mail the correct envelopes to voters in those precincts today or Wednesday.

Voters can also use the primary ballots, Brandt said. They must sign the envelopes, as always, but checking the party oath box or leaving it blank won’t affect whether the ballot is processed.