Some Puyallup Voters Received Two Ballot Packets

PUYALLUP, WA — A small group of Puyallup-area voters have been accidentally shipped two ballot packets for the upcoming November general election, according to an update from Pierce County.

The double-ballots came as a result of a mailing mistake, which the county says was the fault of a vendor hired to provide printing and mailing services for Pierce County Elections.

After discovering the error, officials say they determined that somewhere between 63 and 171 voters accidentally received two ballots packets. The packets carry the same envelops and ballots for the voter.

Those ballots are believed to be the only duplicates issued. For context, there are 553,000+ registered voters across Pierce County who received ballots by mail.

"Controls are in place to prevent both ballots from being counted," the county said. "The vendor has confirmed that this error was limited in scope and did not impact any other areas."

The Pierce County Auditor's Office has reportedly already reached out to all impacted voters, who have been told to return one of the ballots and destroy the spare. If, for some reason, one of those voters does send in both, the Auditor's Office says it has also put safeguards in place to make sure only one ballot is counted, and has alerted the Secretary of State's Office about the issue.

Voting security remains a touchy issue nearly one year after the 2020 Presidential Election. Former President Donald Trump and supporters continue to file lawsuits and launch audits in an attempt to overturn the election, falsely claiming that it was somehow stolen. In Washington, Loren Culp, who lost his bid to replace incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee by some 545,000 votes, has also continued to claim his loss was the result of huge, unreported election fraud.

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican like Culp and Trump, has repeatedly said there have been no substantiated reports of voter fraud in the Evergreen State.

"The Office of the Secretary of State takes allegations of voter fraud seriously. If anyone has evidence of voter fraud being committed in Washington state, I implore you to provide that evidence to your county elections official and/or the Office of the Secretary of State," said Wyman in a statement last December.

Last year, Patch spoke with Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson ahead of the presidential election. Anderson said that voters should feel secure that their votes are being fairly counted in Pierce County— and that the county would do everything to make sure each voice was heard.

"Washington State is all about counting every possible vote. There are some voters who will forget to sign their outer envelope and their voter declaration. There are some voters whose signatures will not match, and those are challenged votes," said Anderson. "We give voters an opportunity to cure those challenges, right up until the day before certification."

Related: Pierce County Mails Ballots For 2021 General Election