Another bad ballot erroneously mailed to Peoria voters

PHOENIX — Voters in Peoria, Ariz. were mailed a second incorrect ballot in as many days Wednesday.

The first ballot erroneously left off Peoria City Council candidate Ken Krieger’s name. That issue was resolved Wednesday after the Maricopa County Elections Office issued an apology and replacement ballots were mailed out.

“It was my personal error,” Karen Osborne, Maricopa County Elections director, said.

But there was a problem with the replacement mailing: Krieger’s name was once again left off the ballot.

“The print vendor printed the same ballots with the same error and mailed those to the same people who had received them before,” Osborne said.

The county spent $15,000 sending out nearly 8,500 new ballots to add Krieger.

The original error came about because of a lawsuit that been filed challenging Krieger’s petition signatures. While the suit was in court, his name was removed from the ballot and never returned, even after the issue was resolved.

Krieger said that despite all of the problems, he’s not giving up.

“I may be ballot-less, but I’m not hopeless,” he told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR’s Mac & Gaydos Wednesday.

He said he’ll meet with his assistants and decide his next step.

“We’re going to come up with a plan, and we’re going to have a news conference tomorrow morning at 10:30 to tell people where we’re going to go from here,” he added.

Osborne said that Krieger has already made a suggestion to her.

“One of the recommendations that Dr. Krieger had made was to postpone this election and move it to the general election in November,” she said. “That certainly is one of the options that the city of Peoria can do.”

She said she’ll have to await Peoria’s decision on what to do next.

Local attorney Kory Landhofer would prefer an extension of the voting deadline or to hold a special election.

KTAR’s Bob McClay and the Associated Press contributed to this report.