Updated to clarify that the school board race for District D should not have been on the ballot at all, not that Beth Smith's opponent shouldn't have been included.

Washoe County staff felt excited that they were going to have general election mail-in ballots sent out early, but as people started receiving sample versions in the mail Wednesday, two mistakes jumped out.

A race was included on the ballot that shouldn't have been, and a candidate was left off. 

After being contacted by readers and one candidate, the RGJ reached out to Washoe County to learn more. A spokesperson said that ballots affecting one race will be reprinted, while the other mistake will not be corrected and will be dealt with by simply not counting votes in that race.

Mail-in ballots are still expected to go out by the statutory deadline of Oct. 19.

The first ballot mistake involves Beth Smith’s race for Washoe County School Board District D. She was the incumbent and received more than 50 percent of primary votes. This made her the automatic winner.

County spokesperson Bethany Drysdale said the ballot will not be updated to remove the race. Instead, “that race just won't be counted because she already won,” Drysdale said, referring to Smith.

Rich DeLong beat out four fellow Republicans in the primary to be the sole GOP candidate to move ahead to the general election in Assembly District 26, which cuts a swath across south Reno up to Incline Village. Reed Mitchell, a Libertarian candidate, was left off the ballot.

To correct the second mistake, the printing process was halted and all general election mail-in ballots for voters in Assembly District 26 already printed will be discarded, Drysdale said. She was not sure how many ballots had already been printed, just that the process had started.

“He will be on the actual ballot, but he’s not on the sample ballot,” Drysdale said. “He actually called about that error and it’s being fixed.”

The incumbent in Assembly 26 – Lisa Krasner – is running for state Senate to represent District 16.

Some websites – including The Nevada Independent and Ballotpedia – list Mitchell as disqualified for the race. Nonpartisans must collect a certain number of signatures based on their district’s size to appear on the general election ballot; most don’t do this and drop off the list of viable candidates when the signature deadline passes in July.

The requirement to collect signatures to stay on the ballot does not apply to Libertarian candidates. It's unclear if confusion over this led to the error.

“Because we have to make that correction," Drysdale said of adding Mitchell's name, "we won't be able to send (mail-in ballots) out early."

Washoe County is encouraging people to go online to use an interactive sample ballot customized for each voter. You can find that at washoecounty.gov/voters, selecting the menu item “election info/voting options” and then selecting the link for “Online Sample Ballot.”

The pair of ballot mistakes were not the first printing problems this year for Washoe County. 

Because of miscommunication with a vendor, a printing error happened with primary ballots in May.

The mail-in ballot envelopes were supposed to be self-adhesive, but the final product did not contain a peel-and-seal strip, causing confusion because of instructions telling voters not to tape or seal envelopes. In the end, people were allowed to tape them shut – or, the advice given, was to just lick the seals on the envelopes.

Early voting runs from Oct. 22 through Nov. 4. Election Day is No

Mark Robison covers local government for the Reno Gazette-Journal, as well as writes Fact Checker and Ask the RGJ articles. 

Subscribe to Mark's Greater Reno weekly newsletter here. Follow him @GreaterReno, Facebook.com/GreaterReno, and Instagram.com/GreaterRenoRGJ. 

Have your say:How to submit an opinion column or letter to the editor