Berks officials take responsibility for date error on Spanish language ballots
Berks County Commissioners Chair Christian Leinbach didn’t make excuses.
At the commissioners weekly meeting Thursday morning, he spoke plainly and bluntly about a mistake on a batch of mailed ballots for the upcoming general election. A mistake that saw the Spanish-language version of instructions on 17,000 ballots cite the wrong date for Election Day.
“I’m not happy at all about the mistakes made by us as it relates to the election,” he said. “We own it. There are no excuses. Our job and what we are doing is determining why these things have happened, what processes or procedures need to change and correct those going forward.
“So, if you were expecting blame or excuses, you’re not getting any,” he said. “We own it. We’re responsible.”
The commissioners said they have corrected the error, which incorrectly stated that the deadline to return mailed ballots to the county is 8 p.m. Nov. 18. The correct deadline is 8 p.m. Nov. 2.
The date is correct in the English instructions as well as on Spanish-language instructions that were sent out more recently. Berks County spokesperson Stephanie M. Weaver said the county has sent out about 21,000 mailed ballots.
Leinbach explained the instructions were based on a template from the May 18 primary. He said the month was changed for the general election, but the day of the month was not.
He said the county has committed to sending letters to all 17,000 people who received the erroneous information and has been publicizing the correct information through various means.
“But again, at the end of the day, it is unacceptable, and we are taking the steps that are necessary — not just to determine what happened but to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Leinbach said.
The election date error comes on the heels of another issue with ballots that was recently brought to light.
Last week, a Berks County voter discovered that mailed ballots might require more than one stamp to return and that there is no indication in the instructions that additional postage would be needed.
The commissioners acknowledged the potential issue and said steps were taken to address it.
They said they worked with local postmasters to send a message to all Berks postal facilities directing them to send through any mailed ballots as they receive them and not return any to their senders.
The commissioners said the county will cover the cost of postage shortfalls.
The problem with the Spanish-language instructions was not on the commissioners agenda and only became a topic of conversation after it was brought up at the meeting by a trio of residents.
One of those residents, Jane Palmer, said the latest mistake was more appalling than the postage issue. She called on the commissioners to take immediate action to address the mistake.
“What to do about this in the long term is an open question,” the Wyomissing resident said. “But you must take steps to rectify the immediate situation and apologies will not do. You must reach out directly to every one of those 17,000 people by multiple means.”
She suggested the commissioners do more than just send letters, emails, texts and make phone calls to those who received the incorrect information.
In addition, she said they must put signs in every neighborhood, place billboards on major roads and run public service announcements on local radio stations.
“And don’t even think about making this a mail ballot issue,” she said. “This is about incompetence and understaffing, and it is your responsibility.”
Celine Schrier, a Reading resident and director of the advocacy organization Berks Stands Up, made many of the same suggestions regarding outreach efforts.
She told the commissioners that she believes it is their responsibility to ensure there’s a strong attempt to correct the record.
And, she added, there must be assurances this doesn’t happen again.
Commissioner Michael Rivera, who speaks Spanish, said he understands how serious and potentially damaging the error is. He said he’s already reached out to some of the Spanish-language radio stations in the area asking for time to share the correct information with listeners.
“We take responsibility and ownership for what happened,” he said. “We are looking into why this happened and ensuring that it doesn’t happen again.”
Rivera stressed the mistake was not made deliberately and was not an attempt to discriminate against those who speak Spanish.
“This was not done to try to get Spanish-speaking voters to turn in their ballots after the election so they wouldn’t count,” he said. “That could not be further from the truth. If you’re not part of the Latino community, you have not seen the outreach that has been done.”