Hope for those with lost, tossed-out ballots

Mail-in voting confused some who tossed out their ballots

By KERANA TODOROV
Napa Valley Register

Susan Adams says she wishes she had known sooner that she didn't have a polling precinct this election day. A Napan since 1955, Adams has never been an absentee voter.

When she got her ballot in the mail she had no clue she'd been converted to vote-by-mail, according to her son, Todd. She threw her ballot away.

Adams can still cast her vote. Absentee and mail-in voters who do not have their ballots can vote at the elections office, 900 Coombs Street, Room 256 in Napa until 8 p.m. today.

Adams talked to John Tuteur, county registrar of voters, who told her to park on the second floor of the Second Street parking lot and walk right in to the Registrar's office to fill out a replacement ballot.

With so many other locals likely in the same boat, "I'm looking forward to seeing the line that I'll be facing," she said.

Tuteur said this is not the only case of someone throwing away their ballot, not realizing what it is.

Voters from 41 precincts had to change to vote-by-mail ballots this year in an effort to eliminate lines at polling places following Secretary of State Debra Bowen's decertification on electronic voting machines, leaving the bulk of voting on paper ballots.

Some didn't realize the change to from polling place to mail-in balloting took place.

At a Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting today on another subject, Tuteur joked he had to make his appearance as brief as possible.

"I have to rush back to my long line of voters who threw away their mail-in ballots," he said.

 A little after noon today, William Custer was among the 25-plus voters at the elections office on Coombs Street to cast his vote.

He, too, received a ballot in the mail, but thought nothing of it.

"I went to my polling place and it was gone after 20 years," said Custer, who used to vote at the Senior Citizens Center on Jefferson Street, one of the closed polling stations.

So he came to Coombs Street to figure what to do next.

"I bit hard on my tongue and I got a second ballot and voted," he said, adding he did not want to get mad at the staff.

Other mail-in voters were Paul Bryant and wife Kii of Napa.

As they returned to their truck, Paul Bryant said he probably tossed his ballot because he never votes by mail. He, too, did not know his precinct was converted into a mail-in precinct.

"It was confusing because they changed the system," said Paul Bryant.

Vote-by-mail voters Sonia Linehan and her husband, Dennis, of Napa said they would have rather voted at their polling station.

"We were kind of disappointed," Sonia Linehan said after casting her ballot. "It is traditional and we know the people there."

Others said they found the staff helpful.

"They were very helpful, very nice," said Ginette Thiry, as people stopped by to drop their signed envelopes.

Others, like DeDe Messner of Napa said she came because she made a mistake on her ballot.

"They're doing the best they can in there," as she left the elections office. "They're doing a good job."

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