Fresno County duplicate ballots sent in the mail, clerk says. Here’s what’s being done
A few thousand voters in Fresno County have received duplicate ballots, but the county clerk said she has controls in place to fix the problem.
County Clerk Brandi Orth said Tuesday that less than a half-percent of registered voters received two ballots, which were generated because their names appeared two ways in the registration system.
In Fresno County, 471,384 people are registered to vote, according to the latest tally from the Clerk’s Office. So an estimated 2,300 people received duplicate ballots.
“I know who they are and we will look at each one of them to make sure that no one votes twice,” Orth said on Tuesday. “And, that only one ballot is counted.”
The primary election March 3 is the first in Fresno County in which every registered voter got a ballot by mail. Voters can cast ballots by mail or go to any one of the 53 voting centers to vote.
The registration system creates a duplicate ballot if a person registers with the Fresno County Clerk’s Office with a nickname or shorter version of their legal first name, and later registers to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles, which uses the person’s legal name.
Supervisor Brian Pacheco said he hopes the new system can be worked out by the November election. “Whenever you change systems, I fully believe these kinds of things are going to happen,” he said. “It’s how we respond to them to clean them up is what we need.”
County staffers have identified anyone who received more than one ballot, Orth said, and those ballots will be isolated and confirmed before processed. If a voter fills out more than one ballot, only the first ballot received will be counted, she said.
To try to cut down on duplicates, clerk staffers go through the records to remove errant registrations when they can be confirmed, Orth said. But the task can be complicated if a driver’s license or Social Security number is not on file in each of the duplicate cases.
“This is a lot of additional work for my department but we’re committed to seeing it through,” she said.
The office sent at least three mailings to the voters who were believed to get more than one ballot, Orth said.
Supervisor Steve Brandau said the county needs to keep an eye out for voting issues. “We have some elections in Fresno County coming up where half of a percent can possibly make an impact,” he said. “So that makes me nervous.”
