Errors printed on ballots for Fernley city council, Stagecoach GID races
Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
Lyon County Clerk/Treasurer Staci Lindberg said she is working with the Secretary of State’s Office and other agencies to determine how to proceed after errors were printed on ballots for two races within the county.
The ballots for the Fernley City Council Ward 5 instruct voters to vote for two candidates. Lindberg said it should say vote for one.
There are four candidates running for the Fernley City Council Ward 5 seat, and the two who receive the most votes advance to the general election in November, unless the winner receives 50 percent plus one of the total votes.
There are nine candidates running for three seats on the Stagecoach General Improvement District Board of Trustees, and Lindberg said the same error was printed on the ballots for that race. Like the Fernley City Council race, the primary election narrows the field for the general election in November.
Lindberg said the errors are only on the ballots for those two races and do not affect voters in any other precincts.
“We’re working with the Secretary of State, the District Attorney and the Attorney General, trying to find something we can all agree on,” Lindberg said.
Lindberg said she rejected the idea of letting the election continue with the ballots as printed, then have one of the candidates contest the result.
“I want to get it corrected for the candidates and the voters,” she said.
Lindberg said there is no state statute that spells out how to proceed in the event of this specific error.
“I found an error that has never been pulled off before,” she said.
The errors were discovered after ballots had been mailed out and Lindberg said the county has already received some ballots in the mail. She said those two races will not be counted when those ballots are processed.
Likewise, with early voting beginning Saturday, she said it is unlikely that corrected ballots could be printed in time to be distributed to the affected precincts.
“It would be wrong to count those votes,” Lindberg said.