Ahead of a June 27 primary election for local offices, voters in Nassau County on New York’s Long Island received cards in their mailbox containing their voter registration information and their polling place.
Because of a printing error, about half a million voters who were registered Republicans or had other party affiliations were identified as Democrats on the cards.
This led some Twitter users to say this meant that voting officials had turned hundreds of thousands of Nassau County Republicans into Democrats.
The printing mistake, by vendor Phoenix Graphics, was real, but it did not change anyone’s partisan affiliation.
The office of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told PolitiFact New York that Nassau County was immediately notified about the error, worked to fix it and investigated how the mistake happened.
In New York, only registered Democrats can vote in Democratic primaries and only registered Republicans can vote in Republican primaries.
Blakeman’s office said the problem stemmed from human error by the company that printed the cards.
Phoenix Graphics told USA Today in a statement, “The voters’ party affiliation may have been incorrect on the first mailing. However, polling site information is correct. We take responsibility for that. As soon as it was discovered, we moved immediately to remedy the situation. This is an isolated event, but we apologize for our mistake, especially to Nassau County officials, who bear no responsibility for this problem. We have fixed the error and at no cost to taxpayers will deliver corrected voter information cards as soon as possible.”
PolitiFact asked the Nassau County Board of Elections to determine whether the mistake meant that any voters had their party registrations changed.
The board did not answer our inquiry, but Nassau County Democratic Elections Commissioner Jim Scheuerman told WABC-TV in New York that “all voter information is accurate in our system. This is purely a vendor error that is quickly being rectified.”
“This was an error on an outside document that in no way affected registration with the Board of Elections,” Scheuerman said, Newsday reported.
Our ruling
The tweets said a printer error in Nassau County turned every registered voter in the county into a Democrat.
A printing error did occur, but the mistake occurred in an unofficial mailing. Voters did not have their party registrations changed.
We rate the statement Mostly False
Truth-o-meter Ruling
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
• All voters in Nassau County, regardless of party registration, were mailed voter information cards identifying them as registered Democrats.
• The cards were sent in error and did not actually change any voter’s party registration.
• Election officials and the private contractor that printed the cards moved quickly to correct the error.
Statement
Context
on social mediaSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
WABC-TV, "Nassau County executive demands fix to voter mail check card error," May 16, 2023
USA Today, "Nassau County voter ID mix-up affected only printed cards, not voter roll," June 1, 2023
Newsday, "Nassau Board of Elections reissues registration cards with correct party affiliation after error roils voters," May 16, 2023
Interview with the office of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, May 24, 2023
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