Incorrect absentee ballots sent out, then canceled

Cobb County Elections and Registration discovered 75 absentee ballots were sent out in error on Friday in the presidential preference primary.

A couple who had received the wrong ballots reported the error Monday. Staff determined that of the 194 ballots mailed Friday, all of them were Republican ballots, but 75 of them should have been Democratic ballots, according to a county news release. Those incorrect ballots have been canceled and the new, correct ballots will be mailed next week.

“We are happy this situation was found quickly,” Elections Director Tate Fall said in the news release. “Our staff was able to pinpoint the issue, identify those who received the wrong ballot, and determine how to correct it.”

Early voting in the presidential primary ends March 8, and Election Day is March 12, so those voters affected still have time to cast their votes. The department will also contact each affected voter to inform them of the error.

The elections department had several blunders during the 2022 election year, including a failure to mail out more than 1,000 absentee ballots to voters, prompting a lawsuit and emergency court hearing to extend the deadline. Other errors included incorrect redistricting coding, leaving some voters with the wrong ballot, and a lost memory card that, once scanned in, changed the results of a Kennesaw City Council race.

The department underwent an internal audit last year and implemented new processes and checks to ensure any errors are caught quickly and can be resolved on the back end. Fall, who took over the department in December of last year, said she plans to improve the department’s processes using technology and other means to track absentee ballots at every step of the process.