We’re used to campaigns being chaotic. If you were alive in 2000, you know that counting the votes can be mayhem. This year, it’s voting itself that could cause confusion and panic.
For one thing, by when do you have to mail in your ballot? Does it have to arrive by Election Day, or does it merely need to be postmarked by then? It’s not even that simple.
Courts have ordered Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia to continue counting mail-in ballots that arrive beyond Election Day. Pennsylvania and Georgia must count ballots that arrive through Nov. 6, so long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3. Wisconsin has been ordered to tabulate properly postmarked ballots through Nov. 9, and in Michigan, mail-in ballots can arrive up to 14 days after Election Day.
Why all these changes? Maybe it’s because people keep having trouble with mail-in ballots. Up to 1,000 voters in Fairfax County, Virginia, received two mail-in ballots due to a labeling error. “When I got the mail, we got four ballots — two for me, addressed to me, and two addressed to my husband,” a Fairfax County voter told NBC4 Washington. “For someone who’s, you know, a first-timer doing mail-in, I was confused.”
Some Washington, D.C., residents reported receiving ballots addressed to previous residents because the D.C. Board of Elections automatically sent a ballot to every registered voter on its rolls. “I just received five ballots at my house,” one voter wrote on Twitter. “Some of these people haven’t lived here in years.” Another voter tweeted, “I’ve sent back several postcards to the DC Board of Elections informing them of people who haven’t lived at my address in many years, and yet I still received two extra ballots yesterday.”
In Bergen County, New Jersey, some 6,900 voters were sent ballots for the incorrect congressional district. In Los Angeles County, California, more than 2,000 voters received mail-in ballots that gave them no option to vote for president. “Something told me that this was a different election, a different year, and I just had to check my ballot, and I’m glad I did,” a voter told the Los Angeles Times. Her ballot, her husband’s, and her sister’s all had a list of state ballot propositions printed twice and lacked an option for president.
The snafus, the uncertainty, and the overall political firestorm engulfing mail-in voting has caused some voters in Loudoun County, Virginia, to reverse course. Loudoun County registrar Judy Brown told NBC4 Washington that more than 57,000 voters requested mail-in ballots but that 200 to 300 people per day return them to be voided so they can cast a vote in person.
“Too much public discussion, especially with the debate about mail fraud,” one voter told NBC4 Washington. Another said, “We are concerned about delay in counting absentee voting, so we wanted to come and vote in person.”
