S.F. Voters Are Getting Another Official Mailer After Receiving 316-Page Election Handbook

The San Francisco Department of Elections has sent out even more paperwork to the city's voters after receiving complaints that its 316-page pamphlet for the November 2016 election failed to include the Democratic Party's candidate endorsements.

The agency's director, John Arntz, says the party's list fell through the cracks when it was sent to the department's general email inbox.

Democratic officials faxed the list to the agency, but when they called to confirm the fax was received, a temporary employee who took the call did not pass it along.

"The information was supposed to be in the voter guide. It wasn't. So, we followed up on it," Arntz said.

Along with sending out a new mailer listing party endorsements, Arntz said his office will take steps to prevent a similar mistake from happening again.

"Going forward we've got to get a process in place where the parties would address it to my attention or to the publications manager," Arntz said. "We'll fix that going forward."

The department is required to provide party endorsements that are sent to the office in the voter information pamphlet.

On Page 36 of this year's pamphlet there's a section called "Party Endorsements."

"State law allows political parties to endorse candidates for voter-nominated offices. The party endorsements received by the Department of Elections by the submission deadline are as follows."

The page then includes GOP candidate endorsements, but nothing from Democrats.

Arntz says the new mailer was sent out last Friday, and will include endorsements from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

The mistake was revealed in the midst of the divisive state Senate contest between Supervisors Jane Kim and Scott Wiener, both Democrats.

On Monday, the Scott Wiener for Senate campaign announced it had uncovered the error.

For state seats, the Democratic Party endorsed Wiener for the state Senate, Kamala Harris for U.S, Senate, Phil Ting for state Assembly (19th District) and David Chiu for state Assembly (17th District), among others.

The Republican Party endorsed Matthew Del Carlo for state Assembly (17th District) and Carlos "Chuck" Taylor for state Assembly (19th District), among others.

KQED's Peter Jon Shuler contributed to this report.