A technical issue with the mailing label process for permanent vote-by-mail ballots caused some headaches this week in the Lee County Election Department.

The office over the past few days has been notifying voters of a recently identified issue involving permanent vote-by-mail ballots in Lee County, according to a news release sent to Shaw Local on Thursday morning.

According to the release, the department, as part of its ongoing effort to improve election operations, recently transitioned to a new election management system.

When permanent vote-by-mail ballots were generated, the system properly marked them as issued. However, during the transfer of voter information to print mailing labels, a technical issue caused a small number of voters – specifically those appearing at the end of certain print batches – to be left off the mailing label file. Those ballots were not mailed as originally intended, according to the release.

The department discovered the issue Tuesday and began working with the vendor to determine the cause and correct it. A complete file of the affected voters has been generated, and all impacted ballots were being mailed Wednesday, according to the release.

“Voter eligibility was not affected, no voter information was compromised, and ballot security remains intact,” according to the release. “This issue was limited strictly to the mailing label generation step.”

Election officials also said the Dixon post office was a major help.

“Because our system indicated ballots had been issued, we initially explored whether the matter could have involved postal processing,” according to the release. “The USPS team was extremely responsive and helpful, even coordinating with their regional sorting center to conduct a sweep of their facility to ensure no ballots were delayed. We are grateful for their partnership and commitment to serving our voters.”

Voters with questions or who believe they did not receive their ballots can call the Lee County Election Department at 815-288-3309.