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The source of this article is The Reporter Vacaville Calif.: http://tinyurl.com/5p9pa Some voters still waiting for their absentee ballots By Robin Miller/City Editor Hundreds of voters in Rio Vista may not have received their absentee ballots and Solano County elections officials are saying the documents may have been lost in the mail. Some 690 voters who applied for a regular or permanent absentee ballot prior to Oct. 1 may not yet have received their ballot and may never receive it, elections officials said. "It's a limited number of ballots sent out in a batch on Oct. 6," explained Deborah Seiler, elections manager with the Solano Registrar of Voters Office. Rio Vista City Clerk Margaret Roberts said the ballots apparently arrived at the Rio Vista Post Office but were re-routed back to postal headquarters in Oakland. "From what we're being told, they arrived, but our post office felt it didn't have the time or staff to handle the large number and routed it back to Oakland," Roberts said. From there, it's unclear where the ballots ended up. Acting Post Master Veronica Hale disagreed with that assessment. "I'm not sure anything is missing," she said. "We're getting ballots every day in the mail." As for routing the ballots to Oakland, she said anytime mail is "automatable" it is sent to Oakland where it can be automatically sorted by carrier route and returned the next day for delivery. "I've only had three people come in and make inquiries about ballots," Hale said. Elections officials aren't taking any chances. Rio Vista voters who applied for the ballots before Oct. 1 and who have not yet received theirs have two options, said Seiler. First, they can receive another ballot in person by going to the Rio Vista City Clerk's office, located inside City Hall at 1 Main St. There, replacement supplies are ready for issue and voters can get their ballots and vote. A second option is for voters to request and receive a replacement ballot by mail. Those interested in that option should call the elections department at 421-6675. Both Seiler and Roberts said steps are being taken to make sure no one can vote twice using the old ballots. Once a voter requests a new ballot, their first ballot is flagged in the Registrar's system as void and cannot be voted. If a voter's first ballot arrives after they have requested a second ballot, they are instructed to destroy the first one immediately. Robin Miller can be reached at [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn