The Church of Sweden has apologized for a major administrative error in Vårgårda, where approximately 30,000 voters were all addressed as 'Jens' in official election communications. According to reports from P4 Sjuhärad, the mailings sent via the digital platform Kivra began with the greeting 'Hej Jens' (Hello Jens) to all recipients.
The error occurred ahead of a re-election for the Vårgårda pastorat church council, scheduled to take place between February 23 and March 1, 2026. The re-election was necessitated after thousands of voting papers were accidentally destroyed during the original church election last year.
the human factor is always there
Anders Fagrell, legal counsel for the Skara diocese, acknowledged the mistake, stating 'the human factor is always there' when explaining the error to media. Church officials reported that a correction was issued approximately two hours after the error was discovered.
This marks the second significant administrative problem in Vårgårda's church election process, following last year's incident where voting papers were shredded before they could be counted. The Church of Sweden has not indicated whether the latest error will affect the upcoming re-election schedule.