Officials: 11,000 missing ballots were never prepared

DENVER - Officials with the Denver Clerk and Recorder say approximately 11,000 ballots which were reportedly missing on Friday actually never got prepared or shipped.

On Friday, the Rocky Mountain News reported Sequoia Voting Systems, based in Porterville, Calif., said it delivered 21,450 ballots to a Denver mail processing facility on Oct. 16, but the U.S. Postal Service said it only received 10,364 ballots that day.

"After an investigation by the Denver Elections Division into the whereabouts of the balance of the Oct. 16 mail-in ballot shipment from our printing vendor Sequoia, it has been concluded that the ballots in question were never prepared by the vendor due to a technical problem with the data file on the vendor's end," stated Denver Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O'Malley in a news release Saturday.

Denver Election Director Michael Scarpello said he is certain that his office sent the correct number of voter files to the printer.

O'Malley says Denver transmitted the data file to Sequoia without any errors and the vendor never reported any problems with the file. He says the vendor also never reported the discrepancy when they delivered only about half of the ballots.

"Sequoia made an unfortunate mistake with a portion of Denver's absentee ballots that we produced and mailed. We are extremely regretful of this error and take full responsibility for it. We are working diligently this weekend on this matter and will have all of the Denver ballots in the mail this Monday," said Michelle M. Shafer, vice president of communications and external affairs for Sequoia Voting Systems.

"We've had some very firm conversations with Sequoia, they've owned up to this mistake. In moving forward, perhaps we should look as to whether or not we should continue to use them," said O'Malley in an interview with 9NEWS.

Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro said his office has delivered all the ballots it received.

"Be patient with us. We certainly apologize for the delay, but it's certainly not one that we had any control over," said O'Malley.

O'Malley says the missing ballots will be prepared over the weekend and will be delivered at the USPS's general mail facility on Oct. 27.

"We take this matter very seriously and want Denver voters to know that no one will be disenfranchised by this vendor error," stated O'Malley in the release. "The USPS has advised voters to mail their ballots by Friday, October 31. If voters have any concerns about the remaining time frame in which to return their mail-in ballot, they can drop them off at any of our early voting sites or the Elections Division when these locations are open. Voters may additionally return their voted ballots to any one of the 185 polling locations on Election Day."

A record 1.5 million voters statewide have requested to vote by mail, and more than 180,000 Denver voters have requested mail ballots.

Voters have until Oct. 28 to request mail ballots.

Have you had a problem with voting? Click here to tell us about it!

For more information on voting, visit the 9NEWS.com Voter Guide.