60,000 S.B. County Ballots Flawed

San Bernardino County officials sent out about 60,000 absentee ballots Wednesday to registered voters who earlier had received ballots that mistakenly failed to include the party designation of candidates in two open races.

Some candidates said they are concerned that the mistake could affect the outcome of the election.

Margorie Musser Mikels, a Democrat who is running for the state Senate seat in the 31st District that represents parts of western San Bernardino County, said she fears the second ballot will allow some people to vote twice. She wonders why voters simply weren’t sent notices explaining the mistake.

“This is a big boondoggle,” she said.

The flawed absentee ballots were sent out last week, and county officials concede it is likely some voters may have already mailed in their original ballots. Still, election officials said they can keep voters who receive two ballots from casting both ballots.

“We don’t think it will affect the outcome of the race,” said county spokesman David Wert.

Republican Assemblyman Bob Dutton, who is running against Mikels, also said he doesn’t expect the error to affect the outcome.

But to remind voters in the Republican-dominated district that he is the GOP’s candidate, Dutton said he plans to make a special round of calls to voters and issue a new campaign mailer highlighting his party designation.

Dutton and Mikels are vying to replace Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), who must leave office because of term limits.

“My preference would have been that this [the error in the absentee ballots] take place in someone else’s race,” Dutton said.

Ballots that failed to include party designations were also sent to voters in the 62nd Assembly District, a heavily Democratic district. Assemblyman John Longville (D-Rialto) is leaving office also because of term limits. The district includes San Bernardino, Colton, Rialto and Fontana.

The race to replace Longville pits Democrat Joe Baca Jr. against Republican Marge Mendoza-Ware. They said they don’t expect the error to have a major impact.

“Most people in the Inland Empire know that Baca equals Democrat,” said Baca, whose father is Democratic Congressman Rep. Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino).

Mendoza-Ware said she has been assured by county election officials that the problem has been fixed, but she acknowledged that she could gain votes from Democrats who received the flawed ballots and were confused about who is the Democratic candidate.

“God works in mysterious ways,” she said.

County officials said how the error occurred remains a mystery.

Wert said election officials noticed the party affiliations were missing before the ballots were printed and notified the printing company. He said the county is trying to determine why the ballots were printed without the party designations.