The State Board of Elections and the Motor Vehicle Administration appear to have reached agreement on the number of voters whose changes of address or party registration weren’t properly recorded in time for the June 26 primary elections. The number is 83,493, according to deputy elections administrator Nikki Charlson. The MVA put out a statement agreeing with the number. That’s fewer than had been reported by the elections board as of June 28, but more than the number used by the MVA. The elections board at one time reported that the information of almost 87,000 voters had been collected by the MVA but not passed on to the elections board. The cause, both agreed, was a computer glitch.
MVA Administrator Christine Nizer put out a statement on June 28 saying she was “confident that the ultimate number of voters impacted on Election Day” would be fewer than the 80,000 estimated by the elections board the day before the primary.
The accuracy of Nizer’s statement depends on the definition of “impacted.” If by impacted, she meant the number of voters whose information was mishandled, the statement appears incorrect. If she meant affected voters who actually showed up on Election Day and were directed to cast provisional ballots as a result of the fumble, she was correct.