The Washington Area Music Association’s annual Wammies Awards seem to frequently encounter problems, from a stuffed ballot box in 1985 to 2014 do-over balloting. It appears their upcoming 30th-anniversary event is no different.

In a brief email sent Monday night to their mailing list, WAMA announced that their scheduled Feb. 28 show at the State Theatre in Falls Church is postponed because the hard drive on WAMA President Mike Schreibman’s computer died, “making the Ballot and all of our WAMA files currently inaccessible.” The reschedule, says the announcement “will give us time to make the 30th Wammies the best that it can be.” The new date for the Wammies will be sometime in April.

WAMA’s voting members had not yet received their ballots. The ballot—with categories for multiple genres of music and general awards that WAMA members vote on—traditionally includes musicians nominated by musician members of WAMA, musicians selected by the WAMA board, and musicians suggested by “experts” contacted by WAMA. Last year’s ballot sent to WAMA’ s membership conflated the names of Kid Congo Powers and Ian Svenonius into a single “pop-rock instrumentalist” named “Ian Kid Congo Svenonius.” In many years, WAMA’s ballot and its voting results have been criticized for not reflecting the breadth and diversity of Washington’s music scene. Any such analysis this year will have to wait. 

WAMA has not yet responded to Washington City Paper questions for more details.