New York voters receive absentee ballots with incorrect return envelopes

The issue was reported by voters in the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, Bushwick, Flatbush, Brooklyn Heights, Sunset Park, Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Fort Greene.

The New York City Board of Elections was first notified about the issue on Saturday. The board’s executive director Michael Ryan blamed Phoenix Graphics, a company contracted to mail ballots to voters in Queens and Brooklyn.

“We will ensure on behalf of the voters in Brooklyn that the proper ballots and ballot envelopes are in the hands of the voters in advance of Election Day so they can vote,” Ryan said. “This problem will get corrected.”

John DePasquale, a New York voter who notified the board about the issue, said the employee he spoke with “genuinely sounded shocked and panicked” when he told them about the issue and then rushed him off the phone.

Many voters plan to cast absentee ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. New York already struggled through the primary election in which many races waited weeks before they could be called because of issues with counting absentee ballots.

Carlina Rivera, a New York City councilwoman, noted that she had called for the city to reconsider its contract with absentee ballot providers in July after the botched primary election.

“In July I published an op-ed specifically stating that vendors @BOENYC uses for absentee ballot mailings must be looked into due to distribution errors in the Primary. 3 mos later, BOE ignored my warnings w/ disastrous results. There must be a reckoning, starting at the top,” Rivera tweeted.