A "training" issue led dozens of early voters to fill out incorrect ballots at San Diego County's new satellite polling locations over the weekend, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters Office confirmed to NBC 7 on Monday.
The issue was brought to NBC 7's attention after a Chula Vista man voted in-person at one of the county's new satellite voting locations Saturday morning. The next day, representatives from the County Registrar of Voters showed up at his door to inform him that he was given the wrong ballot type.
County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu confirmed to NBC 7 that this happened in “a few dozen cases” at all of the satellite locations across the county on Saturday morning, the day the satellite voting locations went online.
Vu attributed the errors to “training” issues and said the problem only occurred for the very first 45 minutes of voting and was immediately remedied.
"One of our workers was keying in incorrectly the wrong ballot type for those respective individuals, and so when we saw that we quickly verified that and then contacted those individuals," Vu told NBC 7.
Michael Gonzales, who was notified of the error, said everything seemed normal when went to vote at the Chula Vista satellite location at 690 Oxford Street Saturday morning.
Gonzales noted a supervisor had to help a worker attending to him, but he successfully voted on San Diego County’s new $20 million voting system.
About 36 hours later, while Gonzales sat at home with his family Sunday night, avoiding the rain, two representatives from the County of San Diego Registrar of Voters showed up at his doorstep.
They told him he was given the wrong ballot type when he initially voted, and they were there to give him a new correct ballot.
“As a taxpayer, we pay for systems to be updated correctly," Gonzales said. "It’s concerning."
The representatives gave him a letter that read in part, "We would also be happy to pick (the new ballot) up. Should you wish not to vote this ballot, you may go back to the satellite location to re-vote."
“It is frustrating because now I have to take more time off to go back [and vote],” Gonzales added.
In February 2019, California’s Secretary of State said all of the state's voting systems must be updated before 2020 to strengthen election security.
Vu stressed the error had nothing to do with the new election system. It was plainly a training issue, he told NBC 7.
