The county election bureau found and corrected an error in the instructions for mail-in and absentee ballots that were sent to hundreds of voters.

The bureau found an incorrect return date in the instructions sent to less than 1,000 voters who requested mail-in or absentee ballots for the May 20 primary, and sent them correction letters with the correct return date, which is the day of the primary, according to Chantell McCurdy, bureau director.

The correct return date was printed on the return envelope and some places in the instructions, but fewer than 1,000 of the instructions included the incorrect return date of Nov. 5, which is the date of the general election, according to McCurdy.

She said the ballots with incorrect instructions represent a small portion of the 12,614 ballots that have been mailed to voters as of Monday morning.

“As the error was only with the date, we mailed a correction letter to any voter that could have been affected by receiving the incorrect instructions,” McCurdy said.

She reminds voters that all mail-in and absentee ballots for the primary must be returned by the day of the May 20 primary to be counted.

As of Friday, 3,311 voters returned their completed mail-in and absentee ballots, McCurdy said.

As of Monday, 141,804 people have registered to vote in the primary. Monday was the deadline for voters to register for the primary. McCurdy said she would update the voter registration total Tuesday.