2022 Elections: Pinal County officials describe supplemental ballots that are being sent out

FLORENCE, Ariz. - Officials with Pinal County held a news conference to describe the supplemental ballots that are being sent out to voters in various parts of the county.

The news conference is being held just days after officials announced that some city and town races were left off of ballots.

According to Pinal County spokesperson James Daniels, the issue was human error.

"Just to clarify, this was not about individual candidates being left off of the ballot, it was that all city/town contests were left off of the ballot in certain cities and towns in Pinal County," explained Daniels.

The communities in the following city and towns are impacted:

• Apache Junction
• Casa Grande
• Eloy
• Mammoth
• Maricopa
• Queen Creek
• Superior

The board has approved sending ballots to those impacted with only the local races. People who vote in person will also use a separate ballot.

According to a statement issued by Pinal County on July 18, the supplemental ballot will only contain municipal races, and it is clearly distinguishable from the original ballot. Voters should still use the initial ballot they received to vote in federal, state, legislative and county races.

You can use this map tool to find out if you've been impacted: https://bit.ly/3P2fSiM

"I cannot stress this enough. If you live in any of the seven impacted municipalities you must fill out both of these ballots. If you only fill out the ballot on my right you will only be casting a vote in your municipal elections," explains Kent Volkmer, Pinal County Attorney at a press conference held on July 18.

Additionally, the contests erroneously appeared on ballots sent to voters who were not eligible to vote in municipal races, but elections staff say their ballot counting machines will be able to distinguish that and make those votes void.

"So we have robust protocols in place to ensure that the integrity of the election is not going to be questioned," Volkmer said.

The new supplemental ballots will have an orange stripe on them and will contain the missing ballot measures that were not on the original ballot. For now, staff says they will be conducting a full investigation after the election, and they plan to have additional staff in place on Election Day.

However, it may take longer to release the final voting results.

"There is nothing wrong with the system. There is nothing wrong with our voting machines. This was simply a person who made a type of graphical error. I think we are all human. Everyone has made a mistake before," Volkmer said.