Spanish-language absentee ballot instructions sent to 2,038 Milwaukee voters with wrong date for primary election

The Milwaukee Election Commission sent Spanish-language absentee ballot instructions to 2,038 voters incorrectly listing the date of the spring primary as Feb. 20.

The primary takes place Feb. 18.

Election Commission Executive Director Neil Albrecht told the Journal Sentinel the letters were probably sent between Jan. 28 and Jan. 30, with some on Jan. 31.

Due to a transition in the Election Commission's absentee ballot coordinator position, the Spanish letter was sent without proper proofing, Albrecht said.

The 2,038 voters who received the Spanish-language instructions with the incorrect date also received English-language instructions and a ballot, both with the correct date, he said.

The letters ask voters to allow four to five days for delivery of the ballots to ensure they arrive by Election Day. The instructions state that ballots received after Election Day will not be counted.

The Election Commission became aware of the issue when a voter contacted the office.

A letter in Spanish and English correcting the error was sent to the original 2,038 recipients at the beginning of last week. A notice of election is to be published Monday in the Spanish Journal.

The letters were sent to voters that through a surname analysis are in target wards in the city for having high concentrations of Hispanic and Latino voters, Albrecht said.

The date was correct on any letters that were sent after the issue was brought to the Election Commission's attention, Albrecht said.

Albrecht said he wouldn't anticipate any impact from having the wrong date on the initial letters.

"The same people who received the letter received a letter correcting the date within days," he said. "They probably would have paid more attention to the corrective letter than to the instruction letter that was sent with their absentee ballots."

Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.