Nassau County voter ID mix-up affected only printed cards, not voter roll | Fact check

Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Nassau County glitch turned every registered voter Democrat

A May 24 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) makes a claim about an incident in Nassau County, New York.

"You guys want to hear something weird?" reads the post from conservative media personality Michael Knowles. "A couple of years ago, Nassau County voters decided they finally had enough of Democrats and they elected Republicans down the ballot. But just recently, some kind of glitch just turned every single registered voter in Nassau to Democrat just before the upcoming primary elections. Oopsie Daisy."

The post generated over 900 shares in less than a week.

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Our rating: Partly false

It is true that a printing error led to voters of all political parties in Nassau County, New York, mistakenly receiving identification cards labeling them as registered Democrats. However, voter rolls were unaffected, and no one's actual voter registration changed to the wrong party.

Glitch was due to human error from printing company; actual voter rolls weren't affected

In May, more than 500,000 registered voters of all political party affiliations in Nassau County, New York, were mailed voter information cards from the county’s board of elections notifying them that they were registered with the Democratic Party ahead of a June primary election, according to WABC-TV.

But contrary to the post's notion that this is evidence of cheating, the incident was simply a printing error from Phoenix Graphics, a direct-mail services company used by the county’s board of elections, officials say. The county’s voter registration database wasn’t affected.

Phoenix Graphics said in a statement emailed from their press office, which declined to provide a name for attribution, that the company made a “human error” on the voter registration cards for the county.

“The voters party affiliation may have been incorrect on the first mailing, however, polling site information is correct,” the statement says. “We take responsibility for that. As soon as it was discovered, we moved immediately to remedy the situation. This is an isolated event, but we apologize for our mistake, especially to Nassau County officials, who bear no responsibility for this problem. We have fixed the error and at no cost to taxpayers will deliver corrected voter information cards as soon as possible.”

Jim Scheuerman, Nassau County Democratic elections commissioner, also said the incident was a “printing error on the part of the vendor” and that all voter information was accurate in the system, according to WABC-TV.

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In a May 16 press conference, Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said that while his office is investigating the incident, it is not tied to a conspiracy and that all voter rolls were accurate.

“I don’t think the Democratic Party is engaged in a conspiracy to create havoc in their own primary side,” Blakeman said in the conference. "I would assume that the Democratic Party doesn't want a bunch of Republicans showing up for their primary. So I don't think there's anything nefarious on the part of the Democrat Party."

Only enrolled Democrats can vote in the Democratic Party. Those records are maintained by all poll workers, so any mistake regarding voter identification cards wouldn't have any effect, according to Jerry Goldfeder, an elections law expert.

Phoenix Graphics also sent incorrect absentee ballot envelopes to New York voters in 2020, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. Sal DeBiase, the company’s president, said in a statement at the time that the company had experienced a mechanical issue with one of its machines.

USA TODAY reached out to Knowles for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Misprinted Democratic IDs in NY didn't affect voter roll | Fact check