Some voter information guides arriving in voter mailboxes in Pismo Beach and nearby communities are missing information.
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano says it was a printing error that led to a missing candidate statements for a Pismo Beach City Council candidate and Lucia Mar Unified trustee candidate.
Cano says all pages in the voter information guides for the upcoming election were proofed and approved accordingly.
"Everything looked perfect. It wasn't until the printers included the Spanish statement with the English statement that caused the error for the one candidate statement to be omitted," said Cano. Another council candidate's statement was printed twice.
Cano says the error did not occur until the finalized PDF version of the voter information guide was printed.
"It's just not been our practice in years past to ever go back and reproof everything because we have already proofed all of the pages and they were all correct," said Cano.
Cano says this incident has changed the process and, in the future, the finalized PDF will require proofreading.
Aside from the voter information guide there are other ways voters can learn about candidates, like the sponsored League of Women Voters website votersedge.org, which includes information about candidates.
"They can find information on the candidate’s background, what their top priorities are," said Julie Rodewald, San Luis Obispo County League of Women Voters voter services director.
Voters can also find information on the San Luis Obispo County League of Women Voters' website.
"The League of Women Voters has been putting on several forums and voters can go and look at the replays of those forums," said Rodewald.
"I am just very apologetic and so sorry that this happened to both of our candidates," said Cano.
Both candidates are being reimbursed for the amount they paid to have their statements printed and the corrected version of both candidates statements are available at slovote.com.
The corrected voter information guides are currently being shipped to the San Luis Obispo county clerk-recorder's office. Cano says they will spend this weekend addressing those guides to the impacted voters in the city so they can receive the corrected voter information guide by early next week.
Late Friday afternoon, Cano also announced a typographical error involving the ballot language of the ballot for Measure C-22, saying a “%” sign was used in place of a “¢” sign.
Voters will also receive a "Corrective Action Mailer" for this, but Cano says the full text of Measure C-22 and additional information provided in the voter information guide is correct.
