RICHMOND, Va. β Richmond's top election official confirmed Monday that 283 voters received incorrect ballots containing the wrong House of Delegates race, with five voters already casting those erroneous ballots in person.
The city's new General Registrar, David Levine, told CBS 6 that the five votes that were already cast in the incorrect House of Delegates race cannot be changed.
He said that as an election official, there is "a pit in your stomach" about incorrect votes being cast.
The remaining 278 incorrect ballots were mailed to voters but have not been returned.
Levine said those ballots will be voided and new correct ballots will be sent to those voters with a letter of explanation.
The errors affected voters in three city precincts: precinct 607 (Main Library), precinct 505 (Clark Springs Elementary), and precinct 310 (Baker Senior Apartments).
Levine said voters in precincts 607 and 505 should have the House District 78 race on their ballots, and voters in precinct 310 should have the House District 79 race on their ballots.
House District race 78 features Democrat Betsy Carr versus Republican Rich Prado.
House District race 79 features Republican Kelsey Linnehan versus Democrat Rae Cousins.
James "JJ" Minor, head of the Richmond branch of the NAACP, called the situation "very alarming" after receiving calls from people reporting the ballot errors. Minor said ballot errors can lead to distrust in the voting process.
"Fix it, fix it now," Minor said.
Levine acknowledged his office made mistakes during the ballot verification process for the three precincts.
He said he is "sincerely sorry" for the mistake, and his office is working to mitigate the issue.
According to a press release from the election office, voters in the affected precincts who want to vote early can either wait until the correct ballots are ready, likely early next week, or cast a provisional ballot at the election office.
The office is working to identify where controls failed, building additional checks into each stage, providing additional staff training and oversight, and exploring better systems to aid in error detection.
This marks the latest in a series of ballot errors in Richmond.
Last year, 11 voters in Gilpin Court were given the wrong ballot on Election Day.
In 2022, 6,000 voters were mailed ballots with return envelopes that did not have prepaid postage, which is required by law.
You can check your voting precinct here.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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