Gilroy
– Chrissy Hebert sat down recently to cast her vote by absentee
ballot, but she noticed something was wrong. The Gilroy resident
was being asked to choose candidates for Milpitas City Council.
Gilroy – Chrissy Hebert sat down recently to cast her vote by absentee ballot, but she noticed something was wrong. The Gilroy resident was being asked to choose candidates for Milpitas City Council.
“I thought it was kind of bizarre,” Hebert said. “There was nothing in there about Gavilan (College Board of Trustees’ race), nothing local in there at all.”
After contacting the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, Hebert discovered the district number on her ballot card and the number on her envelope and sample ballot were different, by one digit.
It does not appear to be an error that will affect a large number of Gilroy voters. Officials at the registrar’s office said it was probably a human mistake. Similar voter district numbers likely caused the mix-up. There are 207 different ballot types being used in this election, depending on the location of the voter. There is even more than one district in Gilroy.
“You could live – literally – across the street from someone, but you could … need a different ballot type,” said Elma Rosas, spokeswoman for the registrar’s office.
The only Gilroy voters who have reported problems were supposed to receive ballot 125, but got ballot 135 – Milpitas – instead, she said.
“As far as we know, it’s only a few,” Rosas said. “That doesn’t mean that they were switched – that doesn’t necessarily mean that people in Milpitas got ones from Gilroy.”
Rosas said three people have reported receiving the wrong ballot, and all live in Hebert’s neighborhood, in northeast Gilroy.
But Hebert’s husband, Richard, also got a Milpitas-area absentee ballot, which makes her wonder how many times the mistake was made.
“It would have counted for Milpitas,” said Hebert, a permanent absentee voter. “Then that can blow the whole election. You talk about a problem – forget about chads.”
Hebert encouraged other absentee voters to check that they have Gilroy ballots sooner, rather than later.
“I’m thinking, how many people wait until the last minute to even go through the sample ballot,” she said. “You have to mail it in a timely manner, and then what if you can’t get to the polls on time?”
Replacement ballots already have been mailed to the voters who received the incorrect ones.
Absentee ballots for the Nov. 2 election may be requested by mail through Tuesday, Oct. 26 and in person at the registrar’s office through election day. They must be received at the registrar’s office, or turned into a polling place, by election day.
Anyone with an incorrect absentee ballot may contact the Registrar of Voters at 299-VOTE [8683] or toll free: (866) 430-VOTE.
Issues on Gilroy voters’ ballots:
• U.S. Senate: Bill Jones, Barbara Boxer
• U.S. House, 15th Congressional district: Raymond Chukwu, Mike Honda
• State Senate, 13th district: Shane Patrick Connolly, Elaine Alquist
• State Assembly, 28th district: Bob Perkins, Simon Salinas
• Superior Court Judge, Santa Clara County Office 7: Griffin Bonini, Enrique Colin
• Gavilan Community College Board of Trustees, Area 1: Manly Willis, Mark Dover
• Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees: Bob Kraemer, Pat Midtgaard, Jaime Rosso, Rhoda Bress, Bob Heisey, John Gurich
