Maricopa County officials say the early ballots went to the correct voters and remain valid.
Runbeck Election Services mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots six days before their scheduled date, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said. The voters who received them can complete and return them normally.
The company said the ballots had been processed separately because they could not go through automated U.S. Postal Service sorting. A pallet was mistakenly included in an earlier mail dispatch. Runbeck chief Jeff Ellington called it human error and said the county was not at fault.
President Donald Trump criticized county officials and called Maricopa dishonest. The recorder’s office said the vendor error would not affect voters who received the ballots. The county has about 2.5 million registered voters.