This notification was emailed to Ward 4 Candidates Friday April 10th from City Clerk Monica Mendoza:
You may have heard from under-aged voters or their parents who have received a ballot in the mail by error. The City Clerk Office has been working with Jefferson County Elections to address the issue. Please review the talking points below describing the issue and let me know if you have any questions.
Please see the talking points for any incoming questions regarding the mistaken ballots.
What happened?
- Due to a staff error, 59 residents of ward 4 who are pre-registered to vote but will not be 18 years old by Election Day (April 28) mistakenly received ballots for the special election.
- 16- and 17-year-olds are eligible to pre-register to vote in Colorado, even before they are eligible to vote.
Could those ballots be counted even though the voters are not eligible?
- No. Jefferson County Elections has already marked these 59 ballots as ineligible.
- If any of these voters accidentally return a ballot, the Jefferson County Elections system will identify the ballot as invalid using the unique barcode on the envelope, and the ballot will not be counted.
How do we fix this?
- Jefferson County Elections has already marked all 59 ballots as invalid, so they cannot be counted.
- Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder George Stern and Golden City Clerk Monica Mendoza are mailing a letter to all 59 residents explaining the error and asking them to discard their ballots.
- Jefferson County Elections will also call the voters who have phone numbers on file (27 of the 59) to deliver the same information.
Will this problem affect the other elections this year?
- No. Any of these 59 voters who are eligible to vote in the June state primary and/or the November general election will receive their ballots as normal. However, if they are not eligible to vote in those elections, they will not receive ballots.
How did this happen?
- Due to current circumstances, Jefferson County Elections was not able to follow standard elections processes in pulling this voter list, which led one elections staff member to erroneously include all registered voters in ward 4, rather than just those 18 and older.
Thanks,
Monica Mendoza
City Clerk | City of Golden
911 10th Street | Golden, CO 80401