STANSBURY PARK, Utah — A man who recently moved to Tooele County received two ballots in his mailbox on the same day with both addressed to him.
Joseph Ross and his wife got their ballots in the mail, but Joseph received two of his own. The only difference was the listed middle name.
"I’ve always been a little bit skeptical of the whole system and the social security numbers and illegals voting,” Ross said to FOX 13.
He ended up calling his county clerk and trying to gather information from them about his two ballots.
"They said the guy has the same birthdate almost — he’s like a month apart from me," Ross said. "Somehow, I had never registered this address too from my previous move."
Ross gave back the ballot that was sent to him with the incorrect middle name. He told FOX 13 that over the past decade, he's had a few rare occurrences of getting another Joseph Ross' mail.
“It wasn’t just like this one person they mixed up once — it seems like this guy has been attached to my name somehow for years," said Ross, who says this is his first time voting in a presidential election.
Luckily, Ross did exactly the right thing, according to a state election official.
"We’d hope the voter would reach out to the county clerk in that case and let them know they got two ballots, and that they shouldn’t vote those because there is a felony implication if someone tries to vote twice," said Justin Lee, director of elections for Utah's Lieutenant Governor's Office.
Ross ended up casting his ballot via mail despite being skeptical after the mishap.
Utahns can check their voter registration at vote.utah.gov, although the deadline to register or change voter information online has passed.
For those who have not received their ballots, information on early in-person voting and Election Day voting can be found by clicking "How can I vote?" at the above website.