PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A major mix-up at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office caused chaos and confusion for more than 80,000 people.
A letter was sent to tens of thousands of Arizona voters, indicating that they had recently moved. To vote in any upcoming elections, they would need to provide proof of residency.
“That made me think that somebody stole my identity, so then I started panicking,” said Beth Malapanes.
On Thursday, she received a letter in the mail from the Recorder’s Office. It starts with “Have you moved?” It then goes on to say that, according to ADOT, she obtained a new driver’s license in another state, and if she doesn’t prove she still resides in Arizona, she’ll be placed on the inactive voter list.
“I was scared,” she said.
But Malapanes hasn’t moved in more than a decade. She said after calling and waiting on hold for about an hour, she drove to the Recorder’s Office to get some answers.
“They’re like, ‘Oh no, this is a mistake,’” said Malapanes. “This went out to 83,000 people.”
“What I can tell you is a notice was mistakenly sent out by a third-party vendor of the county. This was not an internal mistake of the Recorder’s Office,” Janine Petty, senior director of voter registration, said.
She said the Recorder’s Office first learned about the printing mistake on Thursday, when concerned voters contacted them. Petty advises anyone who got it to ignore it.
“The third-party vendor has already begun to process and send out corrected letters. They have taken full responsibility for the error and are sending out the corrected letters at their expense, so no additional cost to the county,” said Petty.
Peoria resident Vicki James is another one of the 83,000 people who received the letter.
“It begs to question the integrity of the office,” said James.
Petty said that all the voters who received the wrong note were on a list to receive something else.
“The notice that these voters should have received was related to an MVD glitch,” said Petty.
“Can you explain what that is?” asked Arizona’s Family Reporter Micaela Marshall.
“I think we will have the voters receive their new corrected letter and if they have any questions or concerns they can contact our office about the letter,” said Petty.
“To send out garbage like this and you want me to again put trust in your office? I don’t think so,” said James.
When asked how the office plans on rebuilding trust with the public, Petty said, “The Recorder’s Office takes voter registration and list maintenance very, very seriously and again as I stated, this was a printer vendor error from a third-party vendor of the county and this was not a mistake of the Recorder’s Office.”
Petty said no voter records will be impacted by this mistake.
Arizona’s Family asked ADOT about the “glitch” that Petty said the new letter will address. An ADOT spokesperson said the problem affects anyone who got a license before October 1, 1996. That group of people must provide proof of citizenship in order to vote in future elections.
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