Ballots mistakenly returned to Broomfield voters

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- At least three Broomfield voters say their ballots were mistakenly returned to them just days after they were put in the mail.

"My first thought was this is kind of weird," said Broomfield voter Brandon Helwig. "I found my ballot back in there again."

"It showed up back in our own post box," explained Broomfield voter Jeff Parsons.

Broomfield City and County Clerk Jim Candelarie said he was first made aware of the issue over the weekend.

"They had voted their ballot, put postage on their ballot and mailed it back. Instead of arriving in our office, it was returned to the voter," he said. "It is concerning we want to make sure that we receive and we count every eligible ballot."

Photos of all three returned ballots show they were each filled out properly with the required postage and signature from each voter.  

The ballots also had their postage canceled, which is a sign they went through the automated machines at the post office.

"You want your ballot to count, and you don't want to question the process but when the process fails," said Helwig.

Helwig questions the design of the ballot which includes the address for the city and county building on the front and then the voters address on the opposite side.

"With automated processing, who knows?" he said.

Both the United States Postal Service and Secretary of State's Office are now looking into what went wrong and what can be done to make sure it doesn't happen closer to the election.

"If the post office messes up on the last day, their votes lost," said Helwig.

"Given the high privilege it is vote to in this country, and I wanted to make sure that others didn't have a problem closer to the election," said Parsons.

The USPS provided Denver7 with the following statement:

We would like to assure our customers that we are working closely with municipalities and addressing any isolated issues as they arise to ensure we process and deliver ballots in a timely manner.