ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) -- Concern and confusion from a family in Wayne County who received a voter information card in the mail for one of their parents. The problem is, that parent has been dead for more than 20 years. The situation is also prompting concern from a state lawmaker. Dawn Briner lives with her husband in Ontario, Wayne County, and earlier this month, received two mail check cards from the Wayne County Board of Elections addressed to her in-laws, Emma and Werner. Emma is supposed to have mail sent to the Ontario address; Dawn and her husband changed the mailing address in 2023 after selling Emma's home to move her into an assisted living facility in Penfield, however, Werner has been deceased for more than two decades. "I was like ummm, okay he's passed away and he never filled out any kind of election form and I know Emmy's alive but we never did an election for her either. She lived in Monroe County at the time and we just never really re-registered her or anything so I'm thinking how could this be? How can they be registered to vote, especially one that's been gone for over 20 years," Dawn says when asked about how she initially felt after receiving those cards. This week, Dawn tells News 8 she received letters from Assemblyman Brian Manktelow at her address in Ontario - one addressed to Emma, the other Werner - congratulating them on their voter registration. This is something the Assemblymember says is standard practice for his office for any new voter. Dawn then reached out to the Assemblyman's office with concern about the situation, also reaching out to News 8 looking for answers. Wayne County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Kristin Victorious explains their offices previously received the mail cards for Emma and Werner from Monroe County Board of Elections due to the forwarding address. "The card came back September 24th, approximately, from actually the Monroe County Board of Elections, and the card came back with a transfer of Mr. Briner with an Ontario address," Victorious says. "And so that board, Monroe County, forwarded Wayne County mail check cards to our county to move those voters into their correct voting districts. So when we received the card, and we received quite a few from Monroe County, we then used our NYS voter system to look these voters up. If they are active in another county in New York State we can take that information, their political party, maybe the last four of their social, or their driver's license number, to identify that that's the same voter and register them here in Wayne County," she explains. "And when searched on the NYS Voter - [sic, Werner] was what they call 'inactive'. He had a Monroe County address and he was 'inactive' with a Wayne County mailing address. We could not have registered him here in Wayne County without that record. So that record came from a NYS voter system called 'NYS-Voter' - it's a program that all Board [sic, of Elections] use to identify whether a voter is registered in another county, and with that piece, he was brought over to Wayne County," Victorious continues. "There's a lot of reasons why it could have fallen through the cracks...We cannot cancel voters without some sort of proof that they have either passed or moved out of state," she adds. Assemblyman Brian Manktelow, who personally signs each new voter congratulations letter, tells News 8 he spoke with Dawn on Monday after receiving her email of concern. "The first thing that came to my mind is we're constantly being asked questions about voter integrity, voter fraud, so of course your wheels start spinning and that was really the first thought that came to my mind was, I hope we're not letting things slip through the crack and I think that was my initial thought and then that's why I wanted to reach out to the Board of Elections and just get their side of what's going on and making sure that things are done being done properly," Manktelow, a Republican who represents the 130th district, says. He spent time Tuesday afternoon with the Wayne County Board of Elections to better understand what may have happened. The lawmaker learned about the change of Emma's mailing address and the developments surrounding the timeline of communication. "Wayne County Board of Elections, as all Board of Elections do, they sent out an acknowledgment card to that [sic, Ontario] address saying 'Are you still there - we know you're there - we got this information, will you just send it back with us to confirm that you, Emma and Werner, were both at that address?' and that card had not been returned yet as of today," Manktelow says. In a phone call with News 8 reporter Isabel Garcia, Monroe County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Jackie Ortiz explains the process of the mail check cards and the function of why those are issued. "Everyone gets one of those once a year. This year's an anomaly because we hand out three this year but usually we send out one every year. We call it the 'annual mail check card' or 'verification card' same thing. It's required by law and we send it to everyone who is active in our database. When those go out, if they come back, returned to us, we are supposed to inactive them - inactive the records - so as long as we're not in a 'blackout period.' So for example, we're in a 'blackout period' right now which means we can't inactive someone by law. But if we're not in a blackout period, we are supposed to inactivate them," Ortiz explains. She goes on to detail that in the event a mail check card is sent to an address and not returned, it is taken by the Board of Elections as a confirmation. While in the past, the Monroe County address had been deemed successful, this year, the post office specifically sent them back with a label that says return to sender. "We purged them because the post office said, nope - they're not here. Here is the address, which is how this whole Wayne County thing came to be," Ortiz says. Dawn says she had not reached out to either Wayne County or the Monroe County Board of Elections. "I was kind of leery, I'm like alright well what are they gonna do, and then when I got the letter from the Assemblyman I said - alright that's it now I gotta do something about this because this is making me a little nervous with the elections coming up, anybody could just do an absentee ballot for both of them," Dawn says. There are a lot of meticulous records and information that need to be kept up for the Board of Elections, but some of that information also needs to be communicated to the Board *from citizens. "The process is there but I think our goal from the stateside is now doing more education to all of our voters, not just on signing up to vote, not just voting but things that happen across the board to people in their lives, whether they move, have a son or daughter in the military, whether you know someone passes away," says Assemblyman Manktelow. "Once we get back into office back in Albany, I'm going to work with the Board of Elections, both Monroe County and Wayne County to see if we can't come up with some kind of a mailer or an update in making sure people really know the process and why it's so important," he adds. Monroe County Board of Elections officials tell News8 it is unclear how any checks or confirmation of death was done 20-plus years ago. Nowadays they receive regular data from the NYS of Health with death certificates, cross reference with obituaries, and DMV records. Anyone with concerns or inquiries is urged to contact their respective Board of Elections office.