Election officials in Washoe County, Nevada, confirmed that approximately 32,000 mail-in ballot return envelopes were printed with the word "FALSE" due to a third-party vendor mistake.
The error occurred during the initial production run and affected voters across party lines, according to George Guthrie, a spokesperson for the Washoe County Registrar of Voters.
How the Printing Mistake Occurred
The misprint stemmed from a hidden identification field on the return envelopes. State statute requires certain voters to present additional identification, and those envelopes were designed to display "TRUE" in that concealed field. Envelopes for voters who did not owe extra identification were supposed to leave the field blank, but the vendor instead printed "FALSE" on them.
County administrators caught and fixed the printing glitch for subsequent batches. Guthrie stated that the issue does not alter voter registration rolls, change identification requirements, or impair the legal validity of the ballots.
Vendor Standards and Voting Deadlines
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said his office is scrutinizing vendor performance ahead of upcoming voting cycles. Aguilar emphasized that "vendors working in the election space need to hold themselves to the highest standard and be aware that their actions can have a significant impact on voter confidence."
The specific commercial vendor responsible for the print run has not been publicly identified. It is also not yet known whether county authorities mailed replacement envelopes or if affected residents are expected to return their ballots using the envelopes they received.
Under Nevada election law, mail-in ballots remain fully valid and must be postmarked on or before Election Day, Nov. 3, to be counted.
