Some Spanish-speaking voters in a Pennsylvania city where Hispanics account for nearly 70% of the population are at risk of being disenfranchised in this week's general election because of an error in Spanish-language instructions that accompanied 17,000 mail-in ballots, activists and elected officials said Oct. 28.

Berks County mailed erroneous Spanish-language instructions that said the ballots had to be returned by Nov. 18—16 days past the actual deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters who got the botched instructions include those in Reading, population 95,000, a growing city in southeastern Pennsylvania with the state's highest percentage of Latino people.

The incorrect date did not appear on the ballot itself, and Berks County sent a follow-up letter to the affected voters and enlisted Hispanic groups to do outreach. But people rallying outside the Berks County Courthouse on Oct. 28 demanded that county officials do more.

"The harm has already been done," said Patty Torres, organizing director for Make the Road Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for immigrants and working-class Latinos. Torres decried what she called "voter misinformation" from Berks County and said any voter who received the incorrect instructions should be permitted to return their mail-in ballot until Nov. 18 and still have it counted.