MANTI — A small mistake on the printer’s part could lead to major consequences on election night and beyond in Sanpete County. Phones in the county clerk’s office rang off the hook last week as voters received ballots in the mail that were missing the signature which that is required by Utah state law for a ballot to be counted.

This mistake affects every one of Sanpete’s approximately 13,500 ballots.

Utah State Code Title 20A: Section 20A-3a-202 states that an affidavit on the return envelope must be signed by voters for their ballot to count. Sandy Neill, Sanpete County Clerk, stated that election workers cannot process a ballot without first verifying the signature on the envelope against the signature on file for that voter.

According to Neill she received a PDF file of the envelope from the printer several months ago. When she proofed the file the affidavit was there. Following her approval the PDF was sent to the Lt. Governor’s office for approval and then to the printer. Somewhere between her approval and Sanpete County residents’ mailboxes that section was left off.

The company that made the mistake — Integrated Voting Systems (IVS), located in Dinuba, California, rushed to mail postcards to all registered voters with instructions on how to sign their ballot envelope. According to the instructions, voters should sign their envelopes on the back of the flap, inside the perforated area where the signature line would usually be. For voters who have already returned their ballots, there will be a signature line on the postcard to return.

Neill also said that registered voters can cast their ballots in person during early voting from Oct. 20 to Oct. 30 at the County Clerk’s Office. They can also vote on Nov. 3, Election Day, in Manti from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the County Clerk’s Office.

Derek Brenchley, Deputy Director of Elections for the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, told The Pyramid that the law doesn’t specify what can happen if the ballots are not printed correctly and that it would be left up to a judge if someone was to protest election results because of the omission.

When asked if the omitted affidavit was on the PDF approved by the Lt Governor’s Office, Brenchley declined to answer, saying he said he couldn’t be 100% sure. He stated during the interview that postcards were being mailed to every voter, with instructions and that if signatures were not provided it was the duty of the clerk to reach out to those voters to make it right. IVS is footing the bill for the postcards.

This isn’t the first time ballots printed by IVS have caused problems. In 2018, election officials in Montrose County, Colorado said the company misprinted a code on over 10.500 ballots that led to a very labor-intensive hand count. IVS claimed that error was on the part of Montrose County and filed a lawsuit against them.

IVS also botched a small run of ballots earlier this year in Sevier County. The same error was made on those ballots as was found on the ones for Sanpete County. That mistake was only on a small number of ballots so the problem wasn’t as hard to fix.

Utah does not regulate which companies counties can use to print and mail ballots, and there is no public list of ballot vendors used in the state. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, the leading candidate for governor, recommended IVS to county clerks. However, at least seven different ballot vendors are being used this elections. At least one county — Emery is printing and mailing ballots from their own office.

“This may delay the results for a short time to verify all the signatures,” said Neill, “but we will do everything we can to make sure all those who wanted to vote and sent in their ballot will be counted.”