Submitted to KNCO from Elections Office:

All sample ballots and sample ballot booklets will be in the hands of Nevada County voters in ample time for voter preparation for the November 4 election, although legal challenges nearly derailed the process.

Official Ballots: The Sample Ballot Booklets and Official Ballots were both mailed on October 14, 2014. Most voters in Eastern County received both the booklets and ballots by Thursday, October 16, 2014. Most voters in Western County received their ballots, but not the booklets, by Friday, October 17, 2014.

Sample Ballot Booklets: The Sample Ballot Booklets for voters in Western County were received today, October 21, 2014 by the Grass Valley and Nevada City Post Offices with delivery scheduled for today and tomorrow. A Sample Ballot lookup is always available online on our home page or this direct link http://reports.nevcounty.net/ELWebBallots/rdPage.aspx for voters to view their Sample Ballot Booklets.

This mailing is much later than every other election mailing I have overseen during my seven plus years as Registrar of Voters. Here is what happened:

According to our plan, all ballots and booklets were to have been printed and ready for mailing by September 29, 2014. They were.

However, on that very day, September 29, 2014, I was served with a Petition for Peremptory Writ of Mandate regarding ballot language for Measure S, which stopped the printing and mailing process. On October 1, 2014, the hearing on the Petition was continued to October 3, 2014. On October 1, 2014, I asked our printers to freeze our mailing processes until we received a ruling on the Petition for Peremptory Writ of Mandate. On October 3rd at 4:40 PM, I received the ruling on the petition: Petition Denied. At 4:44 PM, Ms. Sjoberg sent an email to our printer to proceed with our mailing.

On October 10, 2014, our printer informed me that our mailing would be delayed until October 14, 2014 due to an “internal production delay.” It is my understanding that this delay came about because of the cessation of the process on October 1st. At my request, the printer provided postal receipts documenting the deliveries.

One of the candidates on the ballot wrote yesterday, “I am very concerned about the integrity of the voting process”. I hope this explanation will enable this candidate and others to understand that the delay occurred because carefully crafted schedules were changed as a result of the legal process. To ensure the integrity of this election, and to avoid additional delay with costly reprinting of the materials, our team, under my direction, acted with an abundance of caution after the writ hearing was continued.

I sincerely hope no one has been adversely impacted from our later than normal mailing. We are committed to ensuring every voter is given the opportunity to exercise the right to participate in the democratic process. Thank You.

Gregory J. Diaz
Nevada County Clerk-Recorder