16,000 incomplete mail-in ballots mailed to voters in Montgomery County

Montgomery County announced via a press release that on Friday, October 1st evening, county election officials were notified that approximately 16,000 mail-in ballots for the November 2nd general election were printed incorrectly and mailed to residents by its ballot vendor NPC.

The incorrectly printed ballots can be identified as they were only printed on one side (a valid ballot is printed on both sides). 

Chip Gallaher, CEO of NPC, stated “We sincerely regret that this happened and are working with the County and State to ensure impacted voters receive a new ballot. Once the error was recognized, we immediately stopped production and began to investigate. Our investigation determined that a programming error caused the back page of the ballot to be omitted.”

If you received a ballot with printing on only one side you should destroy the ballot and envelopes. Montgomery County Voter Services will cancel the incorrectly issued ballot materials and re-issue new, two-sided ballots to these residents automatically. These residents will be notified either by email, phone or mail. Re-issued ballots are expected to be mailed the week of October 3rd.  

“This does not meet the standard we have come to expect from NPC,” said Dori Sawyer, Director of Elections. “Upon notification of the error, we began working with the Department of State, taking the proper steps to cancel the incorrect ballots and issue replacements. We appreciate the patience of our voters while we re-issue corrected ballots.” 

This continues a series of mishaps involving elections in Montgomery County. In 2020, Montgomery County sent almost 2,000 voters the wrong ballot and sent almost 12,000 voters a letter with the wrong polling location.

Residents with questions can submit a request online or call (610) 278-3280. Montgomery County “sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience this will cause voters.”