ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Voters in St. Charles County should ignore references to cherry or white ballots on the official reminders they got in the mail recently about Tuesday's presidential primary.

Rich Chrismer, the county's elections director, said incorrect ballot color designations were inadvertently included on the reminder cards.

The type of a ballot a voter gets actually can't be determined until he or she requests a Democratic or Republican primary ballot when they show up at the polling place, Chrismer said.

To ensure that voters get the party ballot they really want, he said, poll workers on Tuesday have been instructed to ask each voter's party preference - even if the person simply refers to a color on the reminder card.

"The colors weren't supposed to be on the cards at all," Chrismer said. "It was a mistake."

Meanwhile, Chrismer said, polling place information on the cards is accurate.

He said the color designations in primaries vary based according to which party a person chooses and if other issues also will be voted on in a particular locale.

The only ballot issue on Tuesday will be in St. Peters, where a proposed hotel tax increase will be decided.

Democratic primary voters in St. Peters will get a ballot designated as cherry and Republican primary voters will get one designated as yellow. However, Chrismer said, all reminder cards sent to St. Peters voters refer to a cherry ballot.

Democratic primary voters in other parts of the county will get a ballot designated as white and GOP primary voters in those areas will get one designated as blue. However, the reminder cards sent to those areas all refer to white ballots.

Chrismer, a Republican, said the error occurred when a computer program from a previous election wasn't changed to delete color designations.

He said he doesn't know whether his office or the county's information systems department was responsible for the mishap.

Confusing matters further is that all ballots cast by voters actually will be white with black printing.

The differing types of ballots merely carry words in the corner denoting them as "blue" or "yellow" or another color.