Printer to Mail Full-Size Voter Pamphlet to Voters in Santa Cruz City Schools

The Voter Information Pamphlet for the Santa Cruz City School District all-mail ballot election on November 17, 2015 was printed too small and mailed to voters with their ballots yesterday.

A full-size Voter Information Pamphlet is being mailed to voters immediately, with the printer assuming all costs of reprinting and mailing due to their error. The content of the pamphlets are the same.

“I was shocked when I saw the mini-pamphlets with less than 6-point font,” County Clerk Gail Pellerin said. “They definitely do not meet the readability standard we have set for our election materials.”

There are no readability problems with the official ballots, which were also mailed to voters and must be returned by November 17.

Pellerin had designed and approved a pamphlet that was 8½-by-11 inches, instead of the 8½-by-5 inches pamphlet that was printed.

In fact, Santa Cruz County is one of three counties in the state who are working with the Center for Civic Design through a grant from the Irvine Foundation to redesign the election information pamphlets to make them more accessible and easier to read.

Fortunately, the printer out of Washington has assumed full responsibility for the mistake and has agreed to reprint the pamphlets at full size and mail them to the more than 70,000 voters in the Santa Cruz City School District.

Voters will receive their ballots with the smaller pamphlet before they receive the larger size pamphlet. The printer believes the larger pamphlets will be in the mail to voters by Wednesday.

For more information, visit us online at www.votescount.com or call 831-454-2060 or toll free 866-282-5900.