By Adam Pagnucco.
Earlier today, a reader alerted me to a problem with a sample ballot they had received from the county’s Board of Elections. The issue was also noticed by the village manager of Chevy Chase Village.
Minutes ago, the Board of Elections sent out a press release admitting to errors. The press release is reprinted below.
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For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 19, 2024
BOARD OF ELECTIONS STATEMENT REGARDING MAILED OFFICIAL SAMPLE BALLOT & VOTING INFORMATION BOOKLET
The Montgomery County Board of Elections recently sent by U.S. mail 132,217 sample ballot informational booklets to active registered voters in Congressional District 8 while we have not sent the sample ballots to most county voters yet.
The address and the polling place noted on the back cover of the sample ballot is correct but, for a limited number of voters, the name is incorrect. Upon further inspection of the file provided to print the sample ballot, we confirmed that the wrong names included a limited number of voters with surnames starting with the letters A and B. We will send to all 684,000 active registered voters a new sample ballots with correct names by US mail.
An electronic version of the correct sample ballot was emailed to all voters for whom we have an email within their voter registration record.
This name error is limited to sample ballots only and has no impact on Mail-in voting, voter registration, or ballot data. You can check your voter registration information by texting the word ‘CHECK’ to 77788, by visiting our website at 777vote.org, or please feel free to contact us at elections@montgomerycountymd.gov or 240-777-8500 if you have any questions about this matter.
The team also discovered an error in the early voting dates on one Spanish language version page. The early voting dates are Thursday, October 24 through Thursday, October 31.
The Board would like to thank the voters who brought errors in the sample ballot to our attention so that we can correct them and provide accurate information to all the voters.
Please see the 2024 Presidential General Election Sample Ballots at the following links:
Sample Ballot Congressional District 4 (montgomerycountymd.gov)
Sample Ballot Congressional District 6 (montgomerycountymd.gov)
Sample Ballot Congressional 8 (montgomerycountymd.gov)
For more election information, call 240-777-8532, visit www.777vote.org, or follow the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Your Voice, Your Vote 2024!