Broward Election Officials Fixing Address Mistakes for Nearly 1,600 Voters

The Broward County Supervisor of Elections office told NBC 6 it’s fixing address mistakes for 1,577 voters after their information was mixed around when the office redrew precinct and political boundaries after redistricting.

A viewer reached out to the NBC 6 Investigators after she noticed her zip code and address were changed on the county’s website, where you can look up your voter information. She told NBC 6 her address was changed from Wilton Manors to Pompano Beach.

Although she did not want to go on camera, she shared with NBC 6 screenshots of online forums where other neighbors wrote it had happened to them too.  

NBC 6 took that situation to Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott who confirmed the mistake and directed staff to fix it.  

“Some of the cities that you may live in, you may at times get mail that has a different city than the one you live in,” Supervisor Scott said.

Scott told NBC 6 his office identified a similar problem with 1,577 voters, which represent around 0.1% of the 1.2 million total voters in the county.

He said his staff is fixing the issue manually.

After every ten-year census, lawmakers and election officials redraw the precincts and political boundaries in city, school board, state, and congressional elections. It’s known as redistricting.

Broward County has 31 different municipalities, and many people live in the same addresses but in different cities.

For example, the Metropolitan, where the viewer who contacted us lives, is located at 1220 NE 24^th Street in Wilton Manors. There is also a 1220 NE 24^th Street in Pompano Beach.

Scott said the computer program redrawing the precincts and maps couldn’t tell the difference, which led to the mix-up.

“There’s always that opportunity for a mistake,” Scott said, “In this case, the program believed that Wilton Manors was in Pompano.”

NBC 6 requested comment from the company which created the mapmaking program, Esri, and has not yet heard back.

NBC 6 wanted to see if this happened to other neighbors in Wilton Manors so our team went knocking on doors to find out.

“I think it’s kind of screwed up,” Michael Sansevero said.

Sansevero has lived in Wilton Manors since 2010. He checked online to see if his information was correct and verified it was.

“That is good,” Sansevero said.

Several other people we talked to in the neighborhood did not know about the mistake and also went online to check if their information was accurate, which it was.

Supervisor Scott urges people to do the same, just to make sure everything is alright by election day.

“We urge you to take a look at that voter information card and if anything looks concerning on their, please give us a call,” Scott said.

Voters must cast their vote at their assigned precinct on election day.

It’s important to note address updates can be done on election day if a problem is found.

Voters who moved and did not tell the elections office will be directed to their new precinct by election workers.

Too look up your voter information and to verify its accuracy, click here.