Special to Iredell Free News
RALEIGH — Civitech, a technology vendor that works with companies and campaigns to increase voter registrations, inadvertently mailed pre-filled voter registration applications with incorrect name, address and date of birth information to about 11,000 North Carolina residents, the company said.
The N.C. State Board and the company encourage North Carolina residents to disregard and discard any mailing they receive with incorrect information, and to be diligent in reviewing election-related mail from third-party groups.
“With a month before the election, voters are likely to see an increase in election-related mailings,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “Carefully review these mailings, and please remember that accurate information about the elections process, including how to register to vote, and how to check your voter registration status, are available at NCSBE.gov.”
Voters can use the State Board’s Voter Search Tool to check their registration status. To learn more about registering to vote, please visit https://www.ncsbe.gov/registering.
Eligible individuals may register to vote by completing a voter registration application and returning the form to their county board of elections. North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles’ customers may register to vote online through the Online Voter Registration Service.
What happened?
Civitech worked with the printing company Print Mail Pro to send voter registration forms to North Carolinians who may be eligible to register.
Print Mail Pro CEO Shelley Hyde acknowledged that an error occurred during the final stages of digital processing and said corrected forms were being sent to individuals who received incorrect ones.
“We would like to express our sincere apology for the error made by our data department on a recent mailing of voter registration applications for Civitech. This error caused incorrect information to be printed on the registration form of some recipients,” Hyde said. “This was an isolated incident that affected roughly .3% of the total processed in North Carolina. We have taken corrective action in retraining our staff and have added checks to prevent this from happening again.”
Civitech COO Sarah Jackel apologized for any confusion caused by the mailings. Jackel said Civitech was working diligently to contact those who received incorrect forms.
“We are sending corrected mailers with blank applications to all affected NC recipients,” Jackel said. “In addition, we will be contacting all recipients for whom we have telephone numbers by text to alert them to the error, advise them to discard the mailer, and provide any support they need to register.”