Adams County election officials acknowledged another ballot printing error — the third in this election season — that they say could have compromised voters’ anonymity.
Adams County Clerk and Recorder Karen Long said a ballot printing vendor, Runbeck Election Systems, inadvertently included a number on ballots for the Nov. 4 election that could be connected to a voter’s identity.
Long said the error was noticed four days into the counting process, but she decided not to announce it until ballots were accessible after certification.
“We were concerned that disclosing this mistake during the election process could have unnecessarily impacted voter turnout,” she said in a news release issued Wednesday evening.
Long said at no point during the counting process was the identity of any Adams County voter compromised. She said the identifiable number will be redacted, on Runbeck’s dime, prior to anyone accessing the ballots through the Colorado Open Records Act.
The Arizona-based company has been blamed for two prior ballot printing errors in Adams County this year. In October, , while a malfunctioning piece of equipment used by Runbeck .
Those errors were discovered and corrected.
