Printing Error of Ketchikan Borough Absentee-By-Mail Envelopes Being Remedied
September 27, 2020
The by-mail envelopes were printed by PrintWorks out of Homer, Alaska. PrintWorks is a reputable company that specializes in printing ballots and envelopes for state and municipal elections. The Borough has been contracting with PrintWorks for over two decades for printing of election ballots and materials. This is the first instance that the Clerk’s Office is aware of an error occurring. According to PrintWorks owner Kevin Fraley, several municipalities placed an order for by-mail ballot envelopes around the same timeframe as the Borough. Because of the large order, PrintWorks outsourced the project to an envelope converting company for finishing the order. The return envelopes are printed on two sides, with an additional “flap” containing instructions to the voter. During the finishing process, this flap is folded over to cover the return address. The converting company uses a manual process to fold the return envelopes and place them in boxes for the various municipalities. It was during the process of folding, sorting, and boxing the envelopes that the error occurred. Some envelopes for two different municipalities (City of Wasilla and City of Palmer) were placed in the Borough’s box. After the finishing process was completed by the converting company, PrintWorks received and reviewed a sampling of the envelope orders. Each box contains 1,000 envelopes. The sampling that was reviewed in each box was correct, and the boxes were shipped to the municipalities. Upon receipt of the envelope order, Borough Clerk’s Office staff reviewed a portion of the return envelopes, which were correct. Clerk’s staff did not review all of the envelopes, as it was believed that all were printed the same. Kevin Fraley, PrintWorks owner, offered a prepared statement saying, “I am sending this message with the utmost regret for causing the error in the by-mail return envelopes for your voters. The error is totally our fault and we will bear any costs associated with fixing it. I apologize for this happening. In our current, over-politicized world, the last thing our Alaskan City and Borough residents need is something like this breaking their confidence in the election process or in the wonderful job our clerks do. In the future, we will not allow our production to work on similar projects at the same time. This will assure this will not happen again.” Because this error was caught early in the by-mail process, the Ketchikan Borough Clerk and Deputy Clerk have been able to reach out to each voter who was mailed a by-mail ballot. We have either spoken directly to—or left a voicemail message for—each by-mail voter. Voters are asked to review the address on the return envelope to verify whether it contains the correct Ketchikan Gateway Borough address. If a voter finds that they were issued an incorrect return envelope, we are providing a correct return envelope. For voters who are located in Ketchikan, we are offering to pick up their voted ballot. In addition to reaching out to each by-mail voter, the Ketchikan Borough Clerk has also contacted the Wasilla and Palmer City Clerks. It is our goal to coordinate with each voter to provide the proper return envelope and to receive each ballot by the end of the absentee voting period. In the off chance that a Borough ballot does mistakenly get returned to either the City of Wasilla or the City of Palmer, we will coordinate with the Clerks to ensure that those ballots are sent to us immediately. The Ketchikan Borough Clerk’s Office staff is making every effort to correct the situation to make sure that each and every by-mail voter is contacted, and that each and every ballot is returned properly. We want to assure the public that it is our priority to provide for a safe and secure election. We are working diligently to provide an effective solution with a remedy so that every vote is counted.
Edited By Mary Kauffman, SitNews
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