Every voter in Nassau County, NY listed as 'Democrat' after printing 'error'

A printing error led to all Nassau County, New York voters being listed as Democrats on their ID cards. With the primary a month away for county court judge, the cards were mailed to ensure voters knew their polling location. 

According to NBC 4, many residents received their cards on Tuesday and immediately began calling their county officials.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said, "We’re already starting to get phone calls from people, saying 'I’m a registered Republican, I’m a registered Conservative – how come I’m being identified as a Democrat? Who changed my registration?' And they’re quite upset about it." 

"There’s a lot of confusion, there’s a lot of people emotionally upset about this," he added. 

Blakeman blamed Phoenix Graphics out of Rochester, the company hired to print the new cards. 

A spokesman for the company said it was "an isolated event, but we apologize for our mistake, especially to Nassau County officials, who bear no responsibility for this problem." Phoenix Graphics said the issue was due to human error.

At a time when voter confidence is waning, the error caused some residents to have further doubts about the process. “I have no faith in this country today, as far as what the politics are,” Nassau County resident George Klein said. "I’m going to vote Republican primary day, and Democrat on that is not going to affect it."

According to Pew Research, in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections, only 56 percent of Republican voters had confidence that the elections would be administered well. That was up from 50 percent in the 2020 presidential election.

Nassau County voted solidly Republican in the 2022 midterm elections. According to PIX 11, failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin carried the county by double digits. The GOP also flipped two congressional seats previously held by Democrats.

New York is a closed primary state, so if a voter is registered as a Republican they are not allowed to vote in the Democrat primary, and vice versa. Had the changes been an error in the registration system, the Republican Registered voters would not have been eligible to vote in the 2023 GOP primary.