State Election Board Cautions Voters After Some Receive Mistaken Letter

The Oklahoma State Election Board wants voters to know they may have received a letter by mistake, telling them they are not registered to vote. 

The letter is from the Tulsa non-profit, "OKVOTE," which works to get more people registered. The founder of the group apologized for the error.  

The letter reads in part, "you are not presently registered to vote at your current address." 

The State Election Board is cautioning voters to be aware of the mishap.  

“What we're encouraging voters to do, is if you receive this letter, don't panic,” Secretary Paul Ziriax said.  

Ziriax said the first thing voters need to do if the letter shows up in the mail, is go to elections.ok.gov and go to the OK Voter Portal to see if you are registered.  Voters can also call their county election board and confirm voter registration that way.  

"While we believe they have good intentions, the mailing is definitely causing some confusion out there,” Ziriax said.  

In a statement, OKVOTE said, "Any amount of voter confusion is regrettable, and we sincerely apologize for this mistake." 

OKVOTE said it partnered with CiviTech to identify Oklahomans who had recently moved and who were not listed in public records as registered voters.  

The letter, along with a pre-filled voter registration application, went out to more than 30,000 homes. OKVOTE estimates that 1-2%, or several hundred people who got the letter, were already registered.  

CiviTech said it believed that number is actually less than 1%. CiviTech said it has helped more than half a million Americans register to vote. The CEO said this kind of error is “expected and normal.”  

The company said if people received the letter by mistake, they can simply throw it away.  The deadline to register to vote ahead of the November election is October 9.  

OKVOTE plans to continue encouraging people to register and said it would like to see Oklahoma's election laws updated to make the process easier. 

You can read the letter below.