An incorrect date on the sample ballots that arrived in Monroe County mailboxes told Spanish speakers to vote on Election Day — Nov. 5, 2024, or, more specifically, “5 de noviembre 2024.”
The incorrect date on thousands of sample ballots was a printer’s error. But all dates are correct on the official ballots that will be cast in the Aug. 18 election, Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Sherri Hodies told the Keys Weekly on Monday.
“I heard about it, then I looked at my own mail and couldn’t believe it; I was so angry,” Hodies said on Monday. “I told the printer the date was wrong seven weeks ago. We went through about 11 revisions, and the final proof I approved had the correct dates. I have three Spanish speakers in the office and we all checked the final proof and everything was correct.”
The typo appears in a box titled “Vote Election Day” that gives the date of the August election and a reminder that voters must vote at their designated polling location in their precinct. The paragraph is repeated directly below in Spanish — except the Spanish version says election day is “5 de noviembre de 2024.”
Hodies provided the Keys Weekly with copies of the correct proof of the sample ballots that she approved, along with a marked-up version of a sample ballot that show Hodies’ comments to the printer about revisions in yellow. One of those comments, next to the incorrect date, points out that it says November 2024 and should say “18 de agosto.”
“After we had all checked the correct version and I approved it, the printer still went back and used the wrong version,” Hodies said, adding that the company handles ballots for elections across the state and the country.
She emphasized that all official ballots have the correct dates, and the incorrect date on the sample ballots was a frustrating error at the printer, not a conspiracy to keep Spanish-speaking voters from casting a ballot on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
This is the first major election that Hodies is administering; she was elected in November 2024 and sworn in two months later in January 2025.
