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Adams County Issues Incorrect Ballots Following Duplicate Ballot Error

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - At least 94 voters in Adams County received election ballots with errors on them, the county clerk's office said Sunday, following another ballot-related mistake announced Thursday.

Karen Long, the county's clerk and recorder, said a machine malfunction resulted in the ballots listing the incorrect congressional district or state legislative candidates, in addition to wrong questions related to municipality, school district and special district questions.

The county's ballots are printed by a vendor, Runbeck Election Services, based in Arizona.

"We have used this vendor twice in the past without issue," Long said in a statement. "These mistakes are very disappointing."

The secretary of state's office called them "minor errors" and said it had confidence the county has identified the issue and will correct it.

On Thursday, Long's office discovered that as many as 243 voters received duplicate ballots. The vendor accepted responsibility for that error, too, Long said.

RELATED: Voters In Adams County Receive Duplicate Ballots

The county said it's contacting affected voters who received incorrect ballots to issue new ones, if they have not already submitted their ballot. All ballots will receive additional oversight, Long said, and election judges will manually confirm that those voters received the correct ballot before the vote is counted. Any incorrect ballots will be voided.

"It is possible that a small number of these incorrect ballots have already been counted, but we believe that we will catch the vast majority of them," Long said.

"All of the people who received ballots had the correct state and county races," Adams County spokesperson Jim Siedlecki said. "The only people who would have been impacted got the wrong maybe school district race or the special tax district."

Voters like Laura Frye had hers already sealed and ready to go and now she's left with lots of questions.

"I already filled out my ballot … so I'm not going to open it up and go online and compare," Frye said. "So does my vote count?"

"I certainly hope that everyone has full faith in the system," Siedlecki said. "The secretary of state says that they have no question that the integrity of our election is still intact.

The county says they have a signature verification system in place to help detect duplicate ballots. Officials issued a reminder that it's illegal to vote twice

Long said voters can visit www.govotecolorado.com and view "My Sample Ballot" to confirm their correct ballot. Voters who received incorrect ballots should call the clerk's office at (720) 523-6500.

Other ballot errors have occurred in Mesa and Larimer counties.

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