LOS ANGELES : Error Forces Officials to Resend Sample Ballots

A printing error resulted in the mailing of about 297,000 incomplete sample ballots to registered voters across Los Angeles in advance of next week’s municipal elections, city officials said Friday.

The city clerk’s office, which already has mailed replacement sample ballots, did not discover the error until last week, after a voter called to ask why eight pages were missing from her ballot.

“After we investigated, we realized there was a rather large mailing of about 297,000 improper ballots that went out,” said Joseph Giles, assistant division chief in the city clerk’s election division.

“At the printer’s cost, we reprinted and re-mailed ballots to the entire group we think was affected, which was scattered across a large area everywhere throughout the city,” Giles said. “This was not done at the taxpayers’ expense.”

The city finished mailing a total of 1.8 million sample ballots--including the incomplete ballots--March 24.

The mock ballots help voters make up their minds about City Council and school board contests as well as a list of proposed charter amendments. The election is Tuesday.