‘Misinformation’ sent to thousands of DuPage voters

Inaccurate polling information cards were mailed to thousands of DuPage County voters in a mix-up that election officials say was caused by a printing vendor’s error.

Several weeks ago, cards were mailed to about 360,000 registered voters throughout DuPage telling them where their polling places will be on Election Day. However, roughly 16,000 of those voters received cards that contained incorrect information.

“Our mission is to correct this misinformation as quickly as possible,” said Dan Curry, spokesman for the DuPage County Election Commission.

To prevent affected voters from going to the wrong polling places next week, commission officials on Tuesday sent roughly 16,000 correction letters to about 9,700 households.

“We’re informing them of their correct voting location and have given them instructions on how to double-check,” said Curry, adding that voters can visit the commission’s website for more information.

Curry said any DuPage voters who don’t get a letter by the end of the week can assume that their polling information card is correct.

The erroneous cards were discovered late last week after residents contacted the commission about inaccuracies on the cards they received.

Curry said the mistake was caused by a vendor the election commission hired to produce and mail the cards, Titan Print Solutions, Inc. of Bolingbrook.

“The election commission gave them a file with all the voter names and the addresses — and instructions not to alter that file.” Curry said. “But the vendor, contrary to our instructions, ran our file through a national change of address database. That kicked out these 16,000 problems.”

A representative with Titan declined to comment on Tuesday.

Curry said the $8,050 printing order was the first time the company did any work for the election commission. Production of the cards previously had been done by Liberty Systems, according to Curry.

Commission officials thanked the residents who made them aware of the printing error.

“Obviously, this should not have happened,” Curry said. “We apologize for any confusion that this has caused.”